SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED
We have glanced at their moral and religious condition; let us see how
it is with them socially, and in other respects.
It has been said that the only way to civilize a people is to form in
them habits of industry. Judged by this principle, the Tahitians are
less civilized now than formerly. True, their constitutional indolence
is excessive; but surely, if the spirit of Christianity is among them,
so unchristian a vice ought to be, at least, partially remedied. But
the reverse is the fact. Instead of acquiring new occupations, old ones
have been discontinued.
As previously remarked, the manufacture of tappa is nearly obsolete in
many parts of the island. So, too, with that of the native tools and
domestic utensils; very few of which are now fabricated, since the
superiority of European wares has been made so evident.
This, however, would be all very well were the natives to apply
themselves to such occupations as would enable them to supply the few
articles they need. But they are far from doing so; and the majority
being unable to obtain European substitutes for many things before made
by themselves, the inevitable consequence is seen in the present
wretched and destitute mode of life among the common people. To me so
recently from a primitive valley of the Marquesas, the aspect of most
of the dwellings of the poorer Tahitians, and their general habits,
seemed anything but tidy; nor could I avoid a comparison, immeasurably
to the disadvantage of these partially civilized islanders.
In Tahiti, the people have nothing to do; and idleness, everywhere, is
the parent of vice. “There is scarcely anything,” says the good old
Quaker Wheeler, “so striking, or pitiable, as their aimless, nerveless
mode of spending life.”
Attempts have repeatedly been made to rouse them from their
sluggishness; but in vain. Several years ago, the cultivation of cotton
was introduced; and, with their usual love of novelty, they went to
work with great alacrity; but the interest excited quickly subsided,
and now, not a pound of the article is raised.
About the same time, machinery for weaving was sent out from London;
and a factory was started at Afrehitoo, in Imeeo. The whiz of the
wheels and spindles brought in volunteers from all quarters, who deemed
it a privilege to be admitted to work: yet, in six months, not a boy
could be hired; and the machinery was knocked down, and packed off to
Sydney.
It was the same way with the cultivation of the sugar-cane, a plant
indigenous to the island; peculiarly fitted to the soil and climate,
and of so excellent a quality that Bligh took slips of it to the West
Indies. All the plantations went on famously for a while; the natives
swarming in the fields like ants, and making a prodigious stir. What
few plantations now remain are owned and worked by whites; who would
rather pay a drunken sailor eighteen or twenty Spanish dollars a month,
than hire a sober native for his “fish and tarro.”
It is well worthy remark here, that every evidence of civilization
among the South Sea Islands directly pertains to foreigners; though the
fact of such evidence existing at all is usually urged as a proof of
the elevated condition of the natives. Thus, at Honolulu, the capital
of the Sandwich Islands, there are fine dwelling-houses, several
hotels, and barber-shops, ay, even billiard-rooms; but all these are
owned and used, be it observed, by whites. There are tailors, and
blacksmiths, and carpenters also; but not one of them is a native.
The fact is, that the mechanical and agricultural employment of
civilized life require a kind of exertion altogether too steady and
sustained to agree with an indolent people like the Polynesians.
Calculated for a state of nature, in a climate providentially adapted
to it, they are unfit for any other. Nay, as a race, they cannot
otherwise long exist.
The following statement speaks for itself.
About the year 1777, Captain Cook estimated the population of Tahiti at
about two hundred thousand. By a regular census, taken some four or
five years ago, it was found to be only nine thousand. This amazing
decrease not only shows the malignancy of the evils necessary to
produce it; but, from the fact, the inference unavoidably follows that
all the wars, child murders, and other depopulating causes, alleged to
have existed in former times, were nothing in comparison to them.
These evils, of course, are solely of foreign origin. To say nothing of
the effects of drunkenness, the occasional inroads of the small-pox,
and other things which might be mentioned, it is sufficient to allude
to a virulent disease which now taints the blood of at least two-thirds
of the common people of the island; and, in some form or other, is
transmitted from father to son.
Their first horror and consternation at the earlier ravages of this
scourge were pitiable in the extreme. The very name bestowed upon it is
a combination of all that is horrid and unmentionable to a civilized
being.
Distracted with their sufferings, they brought forth their sick before
the missionaries, when they were preaching, and cried out, “Lies, lies!
you tell us of salvation; and, behold, we are dying. We want no other
salvation than to live in this world. Where are there any saved through
your speech? Pomaree is dead; and we are all dying with your cursed
diseases. When will you give over?”
At present, the virulence of the disorder, in individual cases, has
somewhat abated; but the poison is only the more widely diffused.
“How dreadful and appalling,” breaks forth old Wheeler, “the
consideration that the intercourse of distant nations should have
entailed upon these poor, untutored islanders a curse unprecedented,
and unheard of, in the annals of history.”
In view of these things, who can remain blind to the fact that, so far
as mere temporal felicity is concerned, the Tahitians are far worse off
now, than formerly; and although their circumstances, upon the whole,
are bettered by the presence of the missionaries, the benefits
conferred by the latter become utterly insignificant when confronted
with the vast preponderance of evil brought about by other means.
Their prospects are hopeless. Nor can the most devoted efforts now
exempt them from furnishing a marked illustration of a principle which
history has always exemplified. Years ago brought to a stand, where all
that is corrupt in barbarism and civilization unite, to the exclusion
of the virtues of either state; like other uncivilized beings, brought
into contact with Europeans, they must here remain stationary until
utterly extinct.
The islanders themselves are mournfully watching their doom.
Several years since, Pomaree II. said to Tyreman and Bennet, the
deputies of the London Missionary Society, “You have come to see me at
a very bad time. Your ancestors came in the time of men, when Tahiti
was inhabited: you are come to behold just the remnant of my people.”
Of like import was the prediction of Teearmoar, the high-priest of
Paree; who lived over a hundred years ago. I have frequently heard it
chanted, in a low, sad tone, by aged Tahitiana:—
“A harree ta fow,
A toro ta farraro,
A now ta tararta.”
“The palm-tree shall grow,
The coral shall spread,
But man shall cease.”