{"id":"01KG8AKSKFG5TYC64GFT83KHWD","cid":"bafkreifn7ax2iemn3unegzagiak4arqfksjymerx3kguycczh6io3yg5xi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6724,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.152Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":6657,"text":"In all cases, they have striven hard to mitigate the evils resulting\r\nfrom the commerce with the whites in general. Such attempts, however,\r\nhave been rather injudicious, and often ineffectual: in truth, a\r\nbarrier almost insurmountable is presented in the dispositions of the\r\npeople themselves. Still, in this respect, the morality of the\r\nislanders is, upon the whole, improved by the presence of the\r\nmissionaries.\r\n\r\nBut the greatest achievement of the latter, and one which in itself is\r\nmost hopeful and gratifying, is that they have translated the entire\r\nBible into the language of the island; and I have myself known several\r\nwho were able to read it with facility. They have also established\r\nchurches, and schools for both children and adults; the latter, I\r\nregret to say, are now much neglected: which must be ascribed, in a\r\ngreat measure, to the disorders growing out of the proceedings of the\r\nFrench.\r\n\r\nIt were unnecessary here to enter diffusely into matters connected with\r\nthe internal government of the Tahitian churches and schools. Nor, upon\r\nthis head, is my information copious enough to warrant me in presenting\r\ndetails. But we do not need them. We are merely considering general\r\nresults, as made apparent in the moral and religious condition of the\r\nisland at large.\r\n\r\nUpon a subject like this, however, it would be altogether too assuming\r\nfor a single individual to decide; and so, in place of my own random\r\nobservations, which may be found elsewhere, I will here present those\r\nof several known authors, made under various circumstances, at\r\ndifferent periods, and down to a comparative late date. A few very\r\nbrief extracts will enable the reader to mark for himself what\r\nprogressive improvement, if any, has taken place.\r\n\r\nNor must it be overlooked that, of these authorities, the two first in\r\norder are largely quoted by the Right Reverend M. Kussell, in a work\r\ncomposed for the express purpose of imparting information on the\r\nsubject of Christian missions in Polynesia. And he frankly\r\nacknowledges, moreover, that they are such as “cannot fail to have\r\ngreat weight with the public.”\r\n\r\nAfter alluding to the manifold evils entailed upon the natives by\r\nforeigners, and their singularly inert condition; and after somewhat\r\ntoo severely denouncing the undeniable errors of the mission, Kotzebue,\r\nthe Russian navigator, says, “A religion like this, which forbids every\r\ninnocent pleasure, and cramps or annihilates every mental power, is a\r\nlibel on the divine founder of Christianity. It is true that the\r\nreligion of the missionaries has, with a great deal of evil, effected\r\nsome good. It has restrained the vices of theft and incontinence; but\r\nit has given birth to ignorance, hypocrisy, and a hatred of all other\r\nmodes of faith, which was once foreign to the open and benevolent\r\ncharacter of the Tahitian.”\r\n\r\nCaptain Beechy says that, while at Tahiti, he saw scenes “which must\r\nhave convinced the great sceptic of the thoroughly immoral condition of\r\nthe people, and which would force him to conclude, as Turnbull did,\r\nmany years previous, that their intercourse with the Europeans had\r\ntended to debase, rather than exalt their condition.”\r\n\r\nAbout the year 1834, Daniel Wheeler, an honest-hearted Quaker, prompted\r\nby motives of the purest philanthropy, visited, in a vessel of his own,\r\nmost of the missionary settlements in the South Seas. He remained some\r\ntime at Tahiti; receiving the hospitalities of the missionaries there,\r\nand, from time to time, exhorting the natives.\r\n\r\nAfter bewailing their social condition, he frankly says of their\r\nreligious state, “Certainly, appearances are unpromising; and however\r\nunwilling to adopt such a conclusion, there is reason to apprehend that\r\nChristian principle is a great rarity.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJK7HBXCCD7MHEN55KXEQ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKRZV29YCY8H9J2QBZRB4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKSKF92DBQQA4HPQJKV0N","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.983Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:29.097Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}