Vlll 
PREFACE. 
an authentic record of these, and thus preserve 
them from oblivion, is one design which the 
Author has always kept in view. 
The following work will exhibit numerous facts, 
which may justly be regarded as illustrating the 
essential characteristics of idolatry, and its influ¬ 
ence on a people, the simplicity of whose insti¬ 
tutions affords facilities for observing its nature and 
tendencies, which could not be obtained in a more 
advanced state of society. 
These volumes also contain a brief, but it is 
hoped satisfactory history of the origin, progress, 
and results of the Missionary enterprise, which, 
during the last thirty years, has, under the Divine 
blessing, transformed the barbarous, cruel, indo¬ 
lent, and idolatrous inhabitants of Tahiti, and the 
neighbouring Islands, into a comparatively civilized, 
humane, industrious, and Christian people. They 
also comprise a record of the measures pursued by 
the native governments, in changing the social 
economy of the people, and regulating their com¬ 
mercial intercourse with foreigners, in the promul¬ 
gation of a new civil code, (a translation of which 
is given,) the establishment of courts of justice, 
and the introduction of trial by jury. 
Besides information on these points, the present 
work furnishes an account of the intellectual cul- 
