- end_line
- 6303
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:15.152Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 6239
- text
- Such was the substance of great part of this discourse; and, whatever
may be thought of it, it was specially adapted to the minds of the
islanders: who are susceptible to no impressions, except from things
palpable, or novel and striking. To them, a dry sermon would be dry
indeed.
The Tahitians can hardly ever be said to reflect: they are all impulse;
and so, instead of expounding dogmas, the missionaries give them the
large type, pleasing cuts, and short and easy lessons of the primer.
Hence, anything like a permanent religious impression is seldom or
never produced.
In fact, there is, perhaps, no race upon earth, less disposed, by
nature, to the monitions of Christianity, than the people of the South
Seas. And this assertion is made with full knowledge of what is called
the “Great Revival at the Sandwich Islands,” about the year 1836; when
several thousands were, in the course of a few weeks, admitted into the
bosom of the Church. But this result was brought about by no sober
moral convictions; as an almost instantaneous relapse into every kind
of licentiousness soon after testified. It was the legitimate effect of
a morbid feeling, engendered by the sense of severe physical wants,
preying upon minds excessively prone to superstition; and, by fanatical
preaching, inflamed into the belief that the gods of the missionaries
were taking vengeance upon the wickedness of the land.
It is a noteworthy fact that those very traits in the Tahitians, which
induced the London Missionary Society to regard them as the most
promising subjects for conversion, and which led, moreover, to the
selection of their island as the very first field for missionary
labour, eventually proved the most serious obstruction. An air of
softness in their manners, great apparent ingenuousness and docility,
at first misled; but these were the mere accompaniments of an
indolence, bodily and mental; a constitutional voluptuousness; and an
aversion to the least restraint; which, however fitted for the
luxurious state of nature, in the tropics, are the greatest possible
hindrances to the strict moralities of Christianity.
Added to all this is a quality inherent in Polynesians; and more akin
to hypocrisy than anything else. It leads them to assume the most
passionate interest in matters for which they really feel little or
none whatever; but in which, those whose power they dread, or whose
favour they court, they believe to be at all affected. Thus, in their
heathen state, the Sandwich Islanders actually knocked out their teeth,
tore their hair, and mangled their bodies with shells, to testify their
inconsolable grief at the demise of a high chief, or member of the
royal family. And yet, Vancouver relates that, on such an occasion,
upon which he happened to be present, those apparently the most
abandoned to their feelings, immediately assumed the utmost
light-heartedness on receiving the present of a penny whistle, or a
Dutch looking-glass. Similar instances, also, have come under my own
observation.
The following is an illustration of the trait alluded to, as
occasionally manifested among the converted Polynesians.
At one of the Society Islands—Baiatair, I believe—the natives, for
special reasons, desired to commend themselves particularly to the
favour of the missionaries. Accordingly, during divine service, many of
them behaved in a manner, otherwise unaccountable, and precisely
similar to their behaviour as heathens. They pretended to be wrought up
to madness by the preaching which they heard. They rolled their eyes;
foamed at the mouth; fell down in fits; and so were carried home. Yet,
strange to relate, all this was deemed the evidence of the power of the
Most High; and, as such, was heralded abroad.
- title
- Chunk 1