250 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
of idolatry that awakened their sympathies, and 
called forth their expostulation and interference. 
Adult murder sometimes occurred ; many were 
slain in war; and during the first years of their 
residence in Tahiti, human victims were frequently 
immolated. Yet the amount of all these and 
other murders did not equal that of infanticide 
alone. No sense of irresolution or horror appeared 
to exist in the bosoms of those parents who deli¬ 
berately resolved on the deed before the child was 
born. They often visited the dwellings of the 
foreigners, and spoke with perfect complacency of 
their cruel purpose. On these occasions, the 
Missionaries employed every inducement to dis¬ 
suade them from executing their intention, warn¬ 
ing them, in the name of the living God, urging 
them also by every consideration of maternal ten¬ 
derness, and always offering to provide the little 
stranger with a home, and the means of education. 
The only answer they generally received was, that 
it was the custom of the country; and the only 
result of their efforts, was the distressing conviction 
of the inefficaey of their humane endeavours. The 
murderous parents often came to their houses 
almost before their hands were cleansed from their 
children’s blood, and spoke of the deed with worse 
than brutal insensibility, or with vaunting satisfac¬ 
tion at the triumph of their customs over the per¬ 
suasions of their teachers. 
In their earliest public negociations with the 
king and the chiefs, who constituted the govern¬ 
ment of the island, the Missionaries had enjoined, 
from motives of policy, as well as humanity and a 
regard to the law of God, the abolition of this 
cruel practice. The king Pomare acknowledged 
that he believed it was not right; that Captain 
