Of all the innumerable islands of the vast Pacific, there is none which at various periods has attracted the attention and aroused the interest of the civilized world in the same degree as that in whose harbour we were now lying at anchor.
At first it was the inimitable grace of Cook's narrative of his stay in Otaheite,[60] and the simplicity and felicity of its inhabitants, that left a deep and permanent impression on the mind of the educated reader; in after-times occurrences of a political nature riveted the sympathy of Europe upon this distant island and its queen.
Before entering upon a description of the present condition of Tahiti we may be permitted to cast a hasty retrospect as to the state of the group when the first English missionaries arrived on the Society Islands.
It was in March, 1797, about 18 months after the foundation of the Missionary Society in London, that eighteen ministers of the everlasting gospel landed in Tahiti, with their wives and children, from the renowned ship Duff. This small community dispersed itself among the various islands, and had to make head against obstacles of unwonted magnitude during a series of years. At length, about 1803, shortly after the death of King Pomáre I., who had raised himself from the position of a mere chief to the sovereignty of
the island,[61] Christianity began to take root and spread abroad through the country. In 1812 Pomáre II., the eldest son and successor of Otu, declared himself of the Christian faith. Five years later a further accession of missionaries arrived in a merchantman from New South Wales, who, among other things, brought with them a small printing press. Then for the first time the natives of the Society Islands learned to comprehend the blessedness of the greatest discovery of all time. On 30th June, 1817, after much preliminary instruction by the missionaries, the first proof of a catechism was struck off by King Pomáre II. In the course of the same year there were issued from the missionary press at Papeete 2300 copies of a little alphabet book.
It was the same ship that brought the first horse to the island, a present from the owner of the vessel to King Pomáre. The natives could not conceal their amazement when they saw the captain astride of the splendid animal. Very striking was the remark made by King Pomáre on the occasion: "King George of England," said he, "rides on a horse; but King Pomáre, a yet mightier king, sits at public solemnities upon the neck of one of his subjects!"
The labours of the missionaries were crowned with the
most splendid success. To them is due the merit of having abolished the hideous custom of human sacrifice, of having introduced law and order into the native administration, and of having extirpated various odious vices from their social habits. By their representatives, King Pomáre II. was induced to prohibit all distilleries and places where the kawa-drink was fabricated. Schools and chapels were erected, Bibles and spelling-books were printed and disseminated, till within ten years not alone did all the natives profess Christianity, but the majority of the younger population had learned to read and write.
The cheering spiritual influence exercised by these Protestant missionaries over the aborigines was not unfortunately accompanied by a simultaneous elevation of their physical condition. In consequence of early debauchery and the spread of diseases of a certain class, which appear to be the inevitable concomitants of the first contact of the white man with primitive races, there has been a marked falling off among the population. It almost seems as though the Tahitians had attained the utmost pitch of their civilization, and thence, in obedience to a mysterious natural law, have been compelled, like so many other coloured races, to surrender this lovely abode to a more energetic and self-developing race, till the appalling doom befalls them of being erased from the list of nations!
Thirty-nine years had elapsed since the first missionary had set foot in Tahiti, and Christianity had spread