544 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
could not restrain, and which we should have trembled 
at our children listening to. The disadvantages under 
which they must have laboured, are too apparent to need 
enumeration. Idolatry had indeed been renounced, but, 
during the earlier part of the time we spent there, 
nothing better had been substituted in its place, and the 
great mass of the people were living without any moral 
or religious restraint. 
Our companions, the American Missionaries, felt 
deeply and tenderly the circumstances of their rising 
families, and made very full representations to their 
patrons; they have also sent some of their children to 
their friends in their native country. The children of 
the Missionaries in the South Sea Islands were not in a 
situation exactly similar to those in the northern islands. 
The great moral and religious change that has taken 
place since the subversion of idolatry, had very mate¬ 
rially improved the condition of the people, and elevated 
the tone of moral feeling among them; still it must be 
remembered, that though many are under the controlling 
influence of Christian principle and moral purity, these 
are not the majority, and there is not that fine sense of 
decency, which is a powerful safeguard to virtue; and, 
besides this, the circumstances of the families are far 
from being the most pleasing. 
In only two of the islands is there more than one 
Missionary; and only at the Academy, where Mr. Blossom 
is associated with Mr. Orsmond, is there more than one 
family at a station. The duties of each station, from the 
partially organized state of society, and the multitude 
of objects demanding his attention, are such, that the 
Missionary cannot devote the necessary time to the 
education of his own children, without neglecting the 
