2 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES* 
in Britain and Europe, not the communication of 
the light of science to the uninformed inhabitants, 
prompted the successive visits which Captain Cook 
paid to their shores. The improvement of 
our West India colonies, by transplanting thither 
the most valuable indigenous productions of 
Tahiti, rather than a desire to impart to the 
inhabitants a knowledge of the arts and comforts 
of civilized life, led Captain Bligh to their shores; 
and purposes of justice, his successors. The im¬ 
provement of native society, and, above all, the 
communication of the Christian religion to the 
people, does not appear to have been thought of, 
either by those who directed or performed the 
early voyages to the South Sea Islands. These visits 
were, however, in the arrangements of Him who 
ordereth all things after the counsel of his own 
will, preparing the way for this, in a manner which 
those by whom they were made neither designed 
nor anticipated. 
Without admitting the existence of a power, 
alike at variance with common sense and religion, 
in virtue of which the pope authorized the com¬ 
manders from Spain and Portugal to seize any 
country they might discover, for the purpose of 
bringing its plundered inhabitants within the pale 
of Christendom, or approving the proceedings of 
those who acted upon such authority; their object, 
the conversion of the idolaters, was one that must 
commend itself to every enlightened Christian ; and 
their ardour was frequently proportioned to the im¬ 
portance they attached to the enterprise. This was 
conspicuous in the conduct of many of the voy¬ 
agers of the sixteenth century, and presents them 
in striking contrast with their successors. Papists 
have often adduced the indifference of Protestants 
