INFANTICIDE. 
21 
for the accommodation of the children that might 
be spared, whom they promised to nurse with at¬ 
tention equal to that which they paid to their own. 
The chiefs and people listened attentively to their 
proposal, appeared pleased, and said no more chil¬ 
dren should be murdered. It was, however, only 
a promise. 
The distressing circumstances under which this 
unnatural and revolting crime was practised, and 
the awful extent to which it prevailed, was one of 
the first of the many horrid cruelties filling these 
“dark places”of paganism, that deeply affected them. 
More than once having received intimation of the 
murderous purpose of the parents, they had, when 
the period of childbirth drew nigh, used all their 
influence to dissuade them from its execution, 
offering, as a reward for this act of common huma¬ 
nity, articles highly valued by them. When these 
had failed to move the parents’ hearts, and they 
could obtain no promise from either the father or 
mother, that they would spare the child, the wives 
of the Missionaries have, as a last resort, begged 
that the infant, instead of being destroyed, might 
be committed to their care. But the people were 
so much under the slavish influence of custom, 
that, with one or two exceptions, their efforts 
w r ere unavailing, and the guilty murderers have in 
a few days presented themselves at the Missionary 
dwellings, not only with most affecting insensibi¬ 
lity, but apparently with all the impudence of 
guilty exultation. 
The persons and the habitations of the Mis¬ 
sionaries had hitherto been secure, excepting from 
petty thefts; they were, however, occasionally 
alarmed by rumours of war. Haamanemane had 
formerly requested their aid in a descent he in- 
