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- CHAPTER XLVIII.
TAHITI AS IT IS
As in the last few chapters, several matters connected with the general
condition of the natives have been incidentally touched upon, it may be
well not to leave so important a subject in a state calculated to
convey erroneous impressions. Let us bestow upon it, therefore,
something more than a mere cursory glance.
But in the first place, let it be distinctly understood that, in all I
have to say upon this subject, both here and elsewhere, I mean no harm
to the missionaries nor their cause; I merely desire to set forth
things as they actually exist.
Of the results which have flowed from the intercourse of foreigners
with the Polynesians, including the attempts to civilize and
Christianize them by the missionaries, Tahiti, on many accounts, is
obviously the fairest practical example. Indeed, it may now be asserted
that the experiment of Christianizing the Tahitians, and improving
their social condition by the introduction of foreign customs, has been
fully tried. The present generation have grown up under the auspices of
their religious instructors. And although it may be urged that the
labours of the latter have at times been more or less obstructed by
unprincipled foreigners, still, this in no wise renders Tahiti any the
less a fair illustration; for, with obstacles like these, the
missionaries in Polynesia must always, and everywhere struggle.
Nearly sixty years have elapsed since the Tahitian mission was started;
and, during this period, it has received the unceasing prayers and
contributions of its friends abroad. Nor has any enterprise of the kind
called forth more devotion on the part of those directly employed in
it.
It matters not that the earlier labourers in the work, although
strictly conscientious, were, as a class, ignorant, and, in many cases,
deplorably bigoted: such traits have, in some degree, characterized the
pioneers of all faiths. And although in zeal and disinterestedness the
missionaries now on the island are, perhaps, inferior to their
predecessors, they have, nevertheless, in their own way at least,
laboured hard to make a Christian people of their charge.
Let us now glance at the most obvious changes wrought in their
condition.
The entire system of idolatry has been done away; together with several
barbarous practices engrafted thereon. But this result is not so much
to be ascribed to the missionaries, as to the civilizing effects of a
long and constant intercourse with whites of all nations; to whom, for
many years, Tahiti has been one of the principal places of resort in
the South Seas. At the Sandwich Islands, the potent institution of the
Taboo, together with the entire paganism of the land, was utterly
abolished by a voluntary act of the natives some time previous to the
arrival of the first missionaries among them.
The next most striking change in the Tahitians is this. From the
permanent residence among them of influential and respectable
foreigners, as well as from the frequent visits of ships-of-war,
recognizing the nationality of the island, its inhabitants are no
longer deemed fit subjects for the atrocities practised upon mere
savages; and hence, secure from retaliation, vessels of all kinds now
enter their harbours with perfect safety.
But let us consider what results are directly ascribable to the
missionaries alone.
In all cases, they have striven hard to mitigate the evils resulting
from the commerce with the whites in general. Such attempts, however,
have been rather injudicious, and often ineffectual: in truth, a
barrier almost insurmountable is presented in the dispositions of the
people themselves. Still, in this respect, the morality of the
islanders is, upon the whole, improved by the presence of the
missionaries.
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