+Civilisation does not Engross all the Virtues.+
Quotations from Herman Melville's _Typee_, pp. 225, etc. (John
Murray, 1861.)
"Civilisation does not engross all the virtues of humanity: she has not
even her full share of them. They flourish in greater abundance and
attain greater strength among many barbarous people. The hospitality of
the wild Arab, the courage of the North American Indian, and the
faithful friendships of some of the Polynesian nations, far surpass
anything of a similar kind among the polished communities of Europe. If
truth and justice, and the better principles of our nature, cannot exist
unless enforced by the statute-book, how are we to account for the
social condition of the Typees? So pure and upright were they in all the
relations of life, that entering their valley, as I did, under the most
erroneous impressions of their character, I was soon led to exclaim in
amazement: 'Are these the ferocious savages, the bloodthirsty cannibals
of whom I have heard such frightful tales! They deal more kindly with
each other, and are more humane, than many who study essays on virtue
and benevolence, and who repeat every night that beautiful prayer
breathed first by the lips of the divine and gentle Jesus.' I will
frankly declare, that after passing a few weeks in this valley of the
Marquesas, I formed a higher estimate of human nature than I had ever
before entertained. But alas! since then I have been one of the crew of
a man-of-war, and the pent-up wickedness of five hundred men has nearly
overturned all my previous theories.
* * * * *
"How little do some of these poor islanders comprehend, when they look
around them, that no inconsiderable part of their disasters originate
in certain tea-party excitements, under the influence of which
benevolent-looking gentlemen in white cravats solicit alms, and old
ladies in spectacles, and young ladies in sober russet low gowns,
contribute sixpences towards the creation of a fund, the object of which
is to ameliorate the spiritual condition of the Polynesians, but whose
end has almost invariably been to accomplish their temporal destruction!
"Let the savages be civilised, but civilise them with benefits, and not
with evils; and let heathenism be destroyed, but not by destroying the
heathen. The Anglo-Saxon hive have extirpated Paganism from the greater
part of the North American continent; but with it they have likewise
extirpated the greater portion of the Red race. Civilisation is
gradually sweeping from the earth the lingering vestiges of Paganism,
and at the same time the shrinking forms of its unhappy worshippers.
"Among the islands of Polynesia, no sooner are the images overturned,
the temples demolished, and the idolaters converted into _nominal_
Christians, than disease, vice, and premature death make their
appearance. The depopulated land is then recruited from the rapacious
hordes of enlightened individuals who settle themselves within its
borders, and clamorously announce the progress of the Truth. Neat
villas, trim gardens, shaven lawns, spires, and cupolas arise, while the
poor savage soon finds himself an interloper in the country of his
fathers, and that too on the very site of the hut where he was born.
* * * * *
"During my whole stay on the island I never witnessed a single quarrel,
nor any thing that in the slightest degree approached even to a dispute.
The natives appeared to form one household, whose members were bound
together by the ties of strong affection. The love of kindred I did not
so much perceive, for it seemed blended in the general love; and where
all were treated as brothers and sisters, it was hard to tell who were
actually related to each other by blood.
"Let it not be supposed that I have overdrawn this picture. I have not
done so. Nor let it be urged that the hostility of this tribe to
foreigners, and the hereditary feuds they carry on against their
fellow-islanders beyond the mountains, are facts which contradict me.
Not so: these apparent discrepancies are easily reconciled. By many a
legendary tale of violence and wrong, as well as by events which have
passed before their eyes, these people have been taught to look upon
white men with abhorrence. The cruel invasion of their country by Porter
has alone furnished them with ample provocation; and I can sympathize in
the spirit which prompts the Typee warrior to guard all the passes to
his valley with the point of his levelled spear, and, standing upon the
beach, with his back turned upon his green home, to hold at bay the
intruding European."
+Influences of "Civilisation"+
From R. L. Stevenson's _In the South Seas_, p. 43. (Chatto and
Windus, 1908.)
[It is asked] "Was not the Polynesian always unchaste? Doubtless he was
so always: doubtless he is more so since the coming of his remarkably
chaste visitors from Europe. Take the Hawaiian account of Cook: I have
no doubt it is entirely fair. Take Krusenstern's candid, almost innocent
description of a Russian man-of-war at the Marquesas; consider the
disgraceful history of missions in Hawaii itself ... add the practice of
whaling fleets to call at the Marquesas and carry off a complement of
women for the cruise ... and bear in mind how it was the custom of the
adventurers, and we may almost say the business of the missionaries, to
deride and infract even the most salutary _tapus_ (taboos)."
+Captain Cook at Owyhee in 1799+