14 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
it is only by the labours of the Missionaries that it 
has been within the last few years reduced to a 
system, and employed in a written form, it cannot 
be expected that these books, more than any other 
first translations, should be altogether faultless. 
The knowledge of the Missionaries themselves in 
the language, notwithstanding thirty years’ atten¬ 
tion to it, is constantly increasing; and, compared 
with future translations which their successors or 
well-educated natives may make, the present will, 
perhaps, appear imperfect. Nevertheless, from 
the qualifications of the translators, their unques¬ 
tionable integrity, and united patient attention to 
the preparation of every work, I believe the only 
imperfections that may be found, will refer to 
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 profes¬ 
sion 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 remaining 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 ordinance 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 
