acknowledge it, in traversing the seas, and in visiting you, as yours is by us, should that be the case at a distant period.

66

Captain Finch has made myself, and mother, and aunt, with others, some handsome presents in your name, for which receive my gratitude. We are always glad to see American vessels at Tahiti. Continue to sail your vessels without suspicion. Our harbours are good, and our refreshments abundant.

66

Prosperity attend you, President of the United States of America: may your good government be of long duration. "QUEEN POMARE I."

Tamatoa, the king of Raiatea, has also prepared a communication of similar import, to be transmitted to the president by Captain Finch.

Lieutenant Stribling and myself attended a meeting this afternoon, held weekly by Mr. Williams, with those of his congregation who have been baptized. It is the intention of this gentleman, in the course of a few months, to make an extensive voyage among the islands west of the Georgian and Society groups, and to carry with him a number of the natives of Raiatea, of established piety, to be left as teachers, wherever it may be found practicable. Eight of his parishioners have given their names to him, in view of this enterprise; and he chose this opportunity to communicate the fact to the members of the church; and to ask their opinion of the fitness of the individuals for the undertaking, and the propriety of their entering upon it.

The introduction of the subject led to a number of sensible and excellent speeches. One of them contained a very pretty allusion to the visit of the Vincennes, and the policy of Captain Finch, with an application to the contemplated voyage of Mr. Williams. It was much as follows: "A large man-of-war is now with us. She has come from afar with kind mo

tives and designs of good to ourselves and those like us. Her object is to learn our condition, and to encourage us to seek our own welfare. Her officers have their reward: they are covered and crowned with gold-they wear gold on their shoulders and gold on their heads, (alluding to the lace and epaulets of their uniform,) it is their reward. My sentiment is, that we, too, send out a vessel to those more ignorant and poorer than ourselves, to do them good. Those of us who go on this expedition will not, like these our friends, be crowned with gold for their reward. No! they will receive nothing in this world, perhaps still they shall be crowned. Yes! theirs shall be the crown of eternal life, to be given them, at last, by their Lord and Master Jesus Christ!"

The evening has been spent, as usual, at the mission-house. I have become much attached both to Mr. and Mrs. Williams. Mrs. Williams is an amiable and intelligent woman, well educated, and of good manners; and Mr. Williams is admirably fitted in every respect for a missionary, and long has been, and still is, the instrument of immense good among his people.

LETTER XLII.

DEPARTURE FOR THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

U S. Ship Vincennes, at Sea, Sept. 14th, 1829.

YESTERDAY morning, we hove short before breakfast; and at nine o'clock took our anchor, to bid farewell to the Society Islands. A native pilot, a fine-looking and respectable man, conducted the ship to the open sea. Mr. Williams also politely accompanied us beyond the reef.

From the outline of our visit at the Georgian and Society Islands, which I have thus given, you will perceive, dear H—, that I have left you to consult the recent publication of Mr. Ellis for all that is most

important, in the history, present state, and prospects of their inhabitants. In the letters I have written, however, there is sufficient evidence, I trust, to prove them decidedly and interestingly a civilized and christian people; and to present a conclusive and delightful demonstration of the power of the gospel on the nature, habits, and life of untutored man.

If the aspect of the people in general, and the animated declaration and lively sensibility, even to tears seemingly of deep feeling, of those who have a full remembrance, and who largely shared in their own experience of the evils of heathenism, are to be accredited, the islanders themselves are far from being insensible to the benefit and blessing of the change they have experienced; and would not for worlds be deprived of the light and mercy they have received, or again be subjected to the mental and moral darkness, and various degradation, from which they have escaped.

Yet there are those, who have visited the South Seas, men bearing the christian name, with a reputation for science, and holding stations of honour, who have affected to discover a greater degree of depravity, and more wretchedness, at Tahiti and Raiatea, than was known in the reign and terror of idolatry; and have ventured to proclaim to the world, that christianity has here, for the first time in eighteen hundred years, had the effect of rendering the inhabitants vindictive and hateful, indolent and corrupt, superstitious and unhappy, and more pitiable, in all their circumstances, than when fully in a pagan state! and that the wars, introduced and encouraged by the MESSENGERS OF PEACE, have nearly exterminated the race!

Whence the data for such a sentiment could have been drawn, must for ever remain a mystery, at least to all who, like ourselves, have had the advantage of a personal observation in the case.

MISREPRESENTATIONS REPROVED.

271 The last wars in the islands were previous to any influence gained, by the missionaries, over either chiefs or people. Since the establishment of christianity, there has been an uninterrupted peace; and as to other bloodshed, the Rev. Mr. Nott assured me, that he had not heard of a murder among the natives for fifteen years.

Theft is occasionally known, though we met with no evidence of it; and instances of secret vice and licentiousness doubtless occur; and may, when diligently sought, be found, though not honourably boasted of, by foreign visiters: but do these facts justify the assertion of a general and utter depravity? and do they forfeit the claim of the nation to the epithet, pure morals, and genuine piety, of a christian people? As well might the traveller, in visiting New York or London, because he has suffered from a thief, or discovers a haunt of debauchery, gravely state in his journal, that there is not an honest man or a virtuous woman in the United States or in Great Britain, (an assertion which I have heard made of the Society Islands;) and that the state of the one nation is worse than in the time of the druids; and of the other, than when the red man alone prowled in her forests.

Such a presentation of the state of this people can arise only from gross ignorance of their original condition, and from a very limited personal experience of the high happiness connected with the moral habits and spiritual affections of sincere piety. What were the characteristics, I would ask, not now discoverable in the islanders, to be seen when they were in a state of heathenism? Only such, as would be exhibited in connection with facts, such as the following facts to which I have, at the Sandwich Islands, when they were in a similar condition, myself been an eye-witness. A vessel would scarce have dropped her anchor, before she would have been surrounded and

boarded by crowds of hooting and shouting savages, men and women, almost, if not entirely, in the nakedness of nature, testifying their joy, in a prospect of gain from the visiter, by every variety of rude noise and levity; and this only in prelude to a licentiousness of intercourse, extending frequently from the cabin to the forecastle, too gross to be named; while pilfering and dishonesty in every form, filth, vermin, and disease, followed in the train. Such would be the exhibitions on ship-bcard; and what would be the character of those on shore?

No neatly whitened European cottage would meet the view beneath the foliage of their groves, nor lofty temple invite the admiration of the eye, while it raised the thoughts to heaven; the hum of no thriving school would come like music on the intelligent ear, nor the hymn of devotion be heard floating on the breeze: but the putridity of a corpse, lying in cruel sacrifice before an idol of wood or stone, would direct to the altar of their gods, while the shouts and wild sounds of the song and dance, and the beating of drums, would proclaim a scene of revelry and sin. And, could the veil be removed from all the iniquity of the system under which they dwelt, besides the terrors of superstition by which they were burdened, and the many goading evils, arising from a slavery both of mind and soul, abominations would be disclosed, against which the eye would revolt in involuntary disgust, while the shrieks of victims torn from their midnight slumbers, to be hurried to a terrific death, and the plaintive moanings of infants writhing in the agonies of dissolution beneath the murderous grasp of an inhuman parent, would

"Wake the nerve where agonies are born,"

and fill the soul with a horror not readily to be forgotten!