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- 2026-01-30T20:48:15.152Z
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- 6716
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- most of the missionary settlements in the South Seas. He remained some
time at Tahiti; receiving the hospitalities of the missionaries there,
and, from time to time, exhorting the natives.
After bewailing their social condition, he frankly says of their
religious state, “Certainly, appearances are unpromising; and however
unwilling to adopt such a conclusion, there is reason to apprehend that
Christian principle is a great rarity.”
Such, then, is the testimony of good and unbiassed men, who have been
upon the spot; but, how comes it to differ so widely from impressions
of others at home? Simply thus: instead of estimating the result of
missionary labours by the number of heathens who have actually been
made to understand and practise (in some measure at least) the precepts
of Christianity, this result has been unwarrantably inferred from the
number of those who, without any understanding of these things, have in
any way been induced to abandon idolatry and conform to certain outward
observances.
By authority of some kind or other, exerted upon the natives through
their chiefs, and prompted by the hope of some worldly benefit to the
latter, and not by appeals to the reason, have conversions in Polynesia
been in most cases brought about.
Even in one or two instances—so often held up as wonderful examples of
divine power—where the natives have impulsively burned their idols, and
rushed to the waters of baptism, the very suddenness of the change has
but indicated its unsoundness. Williams, the martyr of Erromanga,
relates an instance where the inhabitants of an island professing
Christianity voluntarily assembled, and solemnly revived all their
heathen customs.
All the world over, facts are more eloquent than words; the following
will show in what estimation the missionaries themselves hold the
present state of Christianity and morals among the converted
Polynesians.
On the island of Imeeo (attached to the Tahitian mission) is a seminary
under the charge of the Rev. Mr. Simpson and wife, for the education of
the children of the missionaries, exclusively. Sent home—in many cases,
at a very early age—to finish their education, the pupils here are
taught nothing but the rudiments of knowledge; nothing more than may be
learned in the native schools. Notwithstanding this, the two races are
kept as far as possible from associating; the avowed reason being to
preserve the young whites from moral contamination. The better to
insure this end, every effort is made to prevent them from acquiring
the native language.
They went even further at the Sandwich Islands; where, a few years ago,
a playground for the children of the missionaries was inclosed with a
fence many feet high, the more effectually to exclude the wicked little
Hawaiians.
And yet, strange as it may seem, the depravity among the Polynesians,
which renders precautions like these necessary, was in a measure
unknown before their intercourse with the whites. The excellent Captain
Wilson, who took the first missionaries out to Tahiti, affirms that the
people of that island had, in many things, “more refined ideas of
decency than ourselves.” Vancouver, also, has some noteworthy ideas on
this subject, respecting the Sandwich Islanders.
That the immorality alluded to is continually increasing is plainly
shown in the numerous, severe, and perpetually violated laws against
licentiousness of all kinds in both groups of islands.
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