All The World Over, Facts Are More Eloquent Than Words; The Following
Will Show In What Estimation The Missionaries Themselves Hold The
Present State Of Christianity And Morals Among The Converted
Polynesians.
On the island of Imeeo (attached to the Tahitian mission) is a
seminary under the charge of the Rev.
Mr. Simpson and wife, for the
education of the children of the missionaries, exclusively. Sent
home - in many cases, at a very early age - to finish their education,
the pupils here are taught nothing but the rudiments of knowledge;
nothing more than may be learned in the native schools.
Notwithstanding this, the two races are kept as far as possible from
associating; the avowed reason being to preserve the young whites
from moral contamination. The better to insure this end, every effort
is made to prevent them from acquiring the native language.
They went even further at the Sandwich Islands; where, a few years
ago, a playground for the children of the missionaries was inclosed
with a fence many feet high, the more effectually to exclude the
wicked little Hawaiians.
And yet, strange as it may seem, the depravity among the Polynesians,
which renders precautions like these necessary, was in a measure
unknown before their intercourse with the whites. The excellent
Captain Wilson, who took the first missionaries out to Tahiti,
affirms that the people of that island had, in many things, "more
refined ideas of decency than ourselves." Vancouver, also, has some
noteworthy ideas on this subject, respecting the Sandwich Islanders.
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