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Updated: June 2, 2025
We were however more inclined to agree with Bougainville, who supposed the dark Tahaitians to be the original inhabitants, and the Yeris invaders, who at some remote period had subjugated them; for the latter are the exclusive possessors of the land; the others obtaining only a certain remuneration in fruits and vegetables for cultivating the fields and plantations of their masters.
I had heard much of an institution established by the Missionaries for the instruction of the people, and was desirous to learn what progress the Tahaitians had made in the rudiments of science. Being informed that the lessons commenced at sunrise, the first rays of that luminary found me one morning at the school-house, as I conceived the simple structure before me to be.
I must, however, warn him to arm himself with patience; for though the Tahaitians are very ready with their assistance, they have quite as bad a habit as ourselves of laughing at any one who speaks their language ill, I say this from experience. Some months before us, the French Captain Duperré had visited Tahaiti upon a voyage of discovery, in the corvette Coquille.
How different, in all probability, would the effect have proved, had he, instead of the miraculous history of his religion, directed the attention of the susceptible Tahaitians to its pure morality, leading so naturally to the idea of a common Father, and a fellowship of charity. O, ye Missionaries, how much blood might ye not have spared!
Strongly inclined to a second marriage, and all the women being already provided with husbands, he seduced a wife from one of the Tahaitians, who, incensed at this outrage, watched an opportunity when Christian was at work on his plantation, attacked, and murdered him. Intelligence of this deed spreading quickly through the colony, produced instant retribution from the musket of an Englishman.
A little brook, meandering among shrubs and flowers, alone took the liberty of mingling its murmurs with the devotions of the Tahaitians. I sauntered along a narrow trodden path under the shade of palms, bananas, orange, and lemon-trees, inhaling their fragrance, and delighting in the luxuriance of nature.
Our experience, however, proves that the lessons they have received from their Christian pastors on the disgracefulness of theft have had a practically good effect. Neither can I deny that the morals of the Tahaitians were very exceptionable in another point, in which also the influence of the Missionaries has been beneficially exerted.
Since that time, Cook and his companions, particularly the two Forsters, father and son, have given us considerable information concerning the condition of the Tahaitians before their conversion to the Christian faith.
We pointed their attention to their forsaken companions, but the volatile creatures only laughed, and not a single canoe would return to take them in. At length, towards nightfall, they left us with the cry of "Marua! Marua!" Among these islanders we observed the disease of elephantism, from which the Tahaitians suffer so much; otherwise they appeared healthy.
Though the vice of theft has certainly greatly diminished among the Tahaitians, they cannot always refrain from endeavouring to appropriate the articles they prize so highly. For instance, I think if any one of the Tahaitian ladies had found an opportunity of stealing a bit of the mock gold lace, the temptation would have been too great to withstand.
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