76 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
the event with Him, at whose command they had 
entered on their work. 
Peace continuing in the island during the close 
of 1806, and the beginning of 1807, allowed the 
teachers to pursue uninterruptedly their endea¬ 
vours to plant Christianity among the inhabitants, 
although at that time with little prospect of 
success. 
The ravages of diseases originating in licentious¬ 
ness, or nurtured by the vicious habits of the 
people, and those first brought among them by 
European vessels, appeared to be fast hastening 
the total desolation of Tahiti. The survivors of 
such as were carried off by these means, feeling 
the incipient effects of disease themselves, and 
beholding their relatives languishing under mala¬ 
dies of foreign origin, inflicted, as they supposed, 
by the God of the foreigners, were led to view the 
Missionaries as in some degree the cause of their 
suffering; and frequently, not only rejected their 
message, but charged them with being the authors 
of their misery, by praying against them to their 
God. When the Missionaries spoke to them on 
the subject of religion, the deformed and diseased 
were sometimes brought out and ranged before 
them, as evidences of the efficacy of their prayers, 
and the destructive power of their God. The 
feelings of the people on this subject were fre¬ 
quently so strong, and their language so violent, 
that the Missionaries have been obliged to hasten 
from places where they had intended to address 
the people. Instead of listening with attention, the 
natives seemed only irritated by being, as they said, 
mocked with promises of advantage from a God, 
by whom, as they imagined, so much suffering 
had been inflicted. Under these circumstances, 
