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.
But the greatest achievement of the latter, and one which in itself is
most hopeful and gratifying, is that they have translated the entire
Bible into the language of the island; and I have myself known several
who were able to read it with facility. They have also established
churches, and schools for both children and adults; the latter, I
regret to say, are now much neglected: which must be ascribed, in a
great measure, to the disorders growing out of the proceedings of the
French.
It were unnecessary here to enter diffusely into matters connected with
the internal government of the Tahitian churches and schools. Nor, upon
this head, is my information copious enough to warrant me in presenting
details. But we do not need them. We are merely considering general
results, as made apparent in the moral and religious condition of the
island at large.
Upon a subject like this, however, it would be altogether too assuming
for a single individual to decide; and so, in place of my own random
observations, which may be found elsewhere, I will here present those
of several known authors, made under various circumstances, at
different periods, and down to a comparative late date. A few very
brief extracts will enable the reader to mark for himself what
progressive improvement, if any, has taken place.
Nor must it be overlooked that, of these authorities, the two first in
order are largely quoted by the Right Reverend M. Kussell, in a work
composed for the express purpose of imparting information on the
subject of Christian missions in Polynesia. And he frankly
acknowledges, moreover, that they are such as “cannot fail to have
great weight with the public.”
After alluding to the manifold evils entailed upon the natives by
foreigners, and their singularly inert condition; and after somewhat
too severely denouncing the undeniable errors of the mission, Kotzebue,
the Russian navigator, says, “A religion like this, which forbids every
innocent pleasure, and cramps or annihilates every mental power, is a
libel on the divine founder of Christianity. It is true that the
religion of the missionaries has, with a great deal of evil, effected
some good. It has restrained the vices of theft and incontinence; but
it has given birth to ignorance, hypocrisy, and a hatred of all other
modes of faith, which was once foreign to the open and benevolent
character of the Tahitian.”
Captain Beechy says that, while at Tahiti, he saw scenes “which must
have convinced the great sceptic of the thoroughly immoral condition of
the people, and which would force him to conclude, as Turnbull did,
many years previous, that their intercourse with the Europeans had
tended to debase, rather than exalt their condition.”
About the year 1834, Daniel Wheeler, an honest-hearted Quaker, prompted
by motives of the purest philanthropy, visited, in a vessel of his own,
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.
It is hardly to be expected that the missionaries would send home
accounts of this state of things. Hence, Captain Beechy, in alluding to
the “Polynesian Researches” of Ellis, says that the author has
impressed his readers with a far more elevated idea of the moral
condition of the Tahitians, and the degree of civilization to which
they have attained, than they deserve; or, at least, than the facts
which came under his observation authorized. He then goes on to say
that, in his intercourse with the islanders, “they had no fear of him,
and consequently acted from the impulse of their natural feeling; so
that he was the better enabled to obtain a correct knowledge of their
real disposition and habits.”
From my own familiar intercourse with the natives, this last reflection
still more forcibly applies to myself.