250 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
minor points of style in idiom or language. Some of 
the Missionaries excel in acquaintance with the original 
languages, others with the native dialect^ and every copy 
is inspected by all^ before going to the press. 
The year 1819 is also distinguished in the annals of the 
South Sea Islanders^ by the administration of the rite of 
baptism to the first Christian converts in the islands. 
Pomare and others made a profession of Christianity in 
1813; names were written down; the change became 
general during the same year; persecution raged with 
violence in 1814; the inhabitants of Tahiti and Eimeo 
embraced the gospel in 1815, and those of the remain¬ 
ing group in 1816; and it certainly appears singular 
that none should have been baptized until 1819. This 
delay, however, did not arise from any doubts in the 
minds of the Missionaries as to the nature of the ordi¬ 
nance itself, the proper subjects of it, or the manner in 
which it was to be administered; on all these points 
they were agreed. It arose from a variety of circum¬ 
stances, peculiar in their kind, local in their influence, 
and such as they could neither foresee nor control. 
At first, their continuance and their existence were very 
uncertain, in consequence of the efforts of the idolaters, 
and the war that followed; afterwards the conduct of the 
king, who, on his first profession, they would not have 
hesitated to baptize, was such, as to induce them to fear 
that his baptism would injure the Christian cause among 
the people; and subsequently, as they were on the point 
of separating and forming distinct stations, it was thought 
best to defer it till they should have entered upon the 
fields of their permanent labour, where they hoped to 
gather around them congregations of converts, adminis¬ 
ter the rite of baptism, and form Christian churches. 
