POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
543 
than any other source of distress to which they are 
exposed. This was the case in the South Sea Mission. 
There were at one time nearly sixty children or orphans 
of Missionaries I and there are now, perhaps, forty 
rising up in the dilferent islands, under circumstances 
adapted to awaken in their parents the most painful 
anxiety. 
In the Sandwich Islands, during our residence there, 
although our hearts were cheered, and our hands 
strengthened, by the great change daily advancing among 
the people, yet the situation of our children was such 
as constantly to excite the most intense and painful 
interest. It is impossible for an individual, who has 
never mingled in pagan society, and who does not under > 
stand the language employed in their most familiar 
intercourse with each other, to form any adequate idea 
of the awfully polluting character of their most common 
communications. Their appearance is often such, as the 
eye, accustomed only to scenes of civilized life, turns 
away in pain from beholding. Their actions are often 
most repulsive, and their language is still worse. Ideas 
are exchanged, with painful insensibility, which cannot be 
repeated, and whose most rapid passage through the mind 
must leave pollution. So strongly did we feel this in 
the Sandwich Islands, that the only play-ground to 
which our children were allowed access, was enclosed 
with a high fence; and the room they occupied was one 
from, which the natives, who were in the habit of coming 
to our dwelling, was strictly interdicted. 
We were always glad to inspire the natives with con¬ 
fidence, and admit them to our houses, but when any of 
the chiefs came, they were attended by a large train of 
followers, whose conversation with our own servants we 
