carried on by the Christian king, Tajo, the 'zealot murderer of 'his subjects,' at the alleged instigation of his supposed Christian teachers. The immediate occasion of the destructive and protracted war, which ultimately compelled the Missionaries to quit the island, was the refusal on the part of the chiefs of Attehuru to give up the national idol, which the king wished to transport to the district of Taiarabu. Pomare, defeated by his rebel subjects, took refuge in the island of Eimeo, where, of all the Missionaries, Mr. Nott alone remained: his colleagues had all left the islands, in 1809, for Port Jackson.

It was during his exile from his native island, that Pomare first evinced a contempt for the idols of his ancestors, and a disposition to listen to the instructions of the Missionaries. Towards the close of 1811, the Missionaries who had retreated to Port Jackson, returned to Eimeo, to recommence their labours in that island. They were received by Pomare with warm demonstrations of joy; and it soon became evident, that adversity had subdued his spirit and softened his heart. He eventually professed his belief in the true God and the Lord Jesus Christ; shortly after which, two chiefs arrived from Tahiti, inviting his return to resume the government of his hereditary dominions. His departure in this critical state of mind was, at the time, much regretted by the Missionaries, who remained at Eimeo, as it deprived him of the instructions of his teachers, and exposed him to a severe ordeal. The chiefs of Tahiti were far from unanimous or cordial in their allegiance; and many of Pomare's allies and relatives, who ascribed all his reverses to the respect he had shewn towards the foreigners, declared that he must not expect his affairs to be retrieved, since he had despised and forsaken the gods of his fathers. The king, however, notwithstanding the strong inducement to defection, or at least to politic dissimulation, remained stedfast. In 1813, two of the Missionaries ventured to revisit Tahiti, in consequence of hearing that some of the inhabitants had renounced idolatry, and professed to believe in the Christians' God. About the same time, the first place for Christian worship ever erected in Eimeo, was publicly opened; when thirtyone natives professed their wish to abandon their superstitions, and worship Jehovah. In the autumn of 1814, after an absence of two years, during which he had vainly endeavoured to reestablish his authority, Pomare returned to Eimeo with a large train of adherents, all professing to be converts to Christianity. They were followed by numbers of fugitives, who, in the civil war which had afresh broken out between the hostile tribes, had sided with the vanquished party, and by numbers who, having secretly embraced Christianity, feared the vengeance of the idolaters. Now, indeed, the contest began to assume the

character of a religious quarrel; but the Christians, instead of being the authors, were the victims of the aggression. The following is the account of the events which ensued, given at the time by the Missionaries on the spot.

"The idolatrous chiefs of Pare, and the chief of Hapaiano, got some of the chiefs of Matavai to join them in a conspiracy against the Bure Atua, (or Christians,) and it was proposed to cut them off entirely, root and branch. But, thinking themselves unequal to the task, those of the new religion being already formidable, both in number and respectability, they acquainted the chiefs of Atahuru and Papara with their views, and invited them to join. These, though their ancient rivals and enemies, came most readily into the measure, and prepared to unite with them without delay; and, on the night of July 7th, these combined forces were to fall, without mercy, on those who had renounced heathenism, and exterminate them; but some of the parties being rather dilatory, and secret intelligence having been conveyed to the party whose ruin was determined upon, and they happening to be that evening, most of them, together by the sea-side, they quickly got on board their canoes, and set sail for Eimeo, where they arrived, and were safely landed the following morning. The disappointed chiefs then quarrelled among themselves; and the Atahuruans, &c. fell upon the Porionu party, that is, upon the party who had invited them. They fought; the Porionu party were defeated, and a number of men killed, among whom was one of their principal chiefs, and a promoter of the war. The Atahuruans, and those of Papara, being joined by Taiarabu, burnt and plundered the whole of the north-east part of Tahiti, from the borders of Atahuru to the isthmus. The question about religion seemed quite forgotten; and the different parties fought to revenge old quarrels, that happened many years ago. Some time after, the Taiarabu people quarrelled with those of Papara and Atahuru, fought with them, but were defeated and driven to the mountains."' Vindication, pp. 32, 33.

Subsequently to this event, the pagan chiefs sent messengers to the refugees in Eimeo, inviting them to return; and Pomare resolved, at the head of his adherents, again to make the attempt to recover his authority. He sent a flag of truce and proposals of peace, and was at length allowed to land. Negotiations were in progress for the adjustment of all differences, with every shew of amity, when, on Sunday, Nov. 12, 1815,

"the heathen party, taking advantage of the day, and of the time when the king and all the people were assembled for worship, made a furious, sudden, and unexpected assault, thinking they could, at such a time, easily throw the whole into confusion. They approached with confidence, their prophet having assured them of an easy victory. In this, however, they were mistaken. We had warned our people, before they went to Tahiti, of the probability of such a stratagem being practised, should a war take place; in consequence of which, they attended worship under arms; and, though at first they were thrown

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into some confusion, they soon formed for repelling the assailants: the engagement became warm and furious, and several fell on both sides.

Soon after the commencement of the engagement, Upufara, the chief of Papara, (the principal man on the side of the idolaters,) was killed: this, when known, threw the whole of his party into confusion, and Pomare's party quickly gained a complete victory. The vanquished were treated with great lenity and moderation; and Pomare gave strict orders that they should not be pursued, and that the women and children should be well treated. This was complied with; not a woman or child was hurt; nor was the property of the vanquished plundered.

"After this, Pomare was, by universal consent, restored to his former government of Tahiti and its dependencies; since which, he has constituted as chiefs in the several districts, some who had for a long time made a public profession of Christianity, and had, for many months, attended the means of instruction with us at Eimeo.

"In consequence of these events, idolatry was entirely abolished, both at Tahiti and Eimeo; and we had the great, but formerly unexpected, satisfaction of being able to say, that Tahiti and Eimeo, together with the small islands of Tapuamanu and Tetaroa, are now altogether, in profession, Christian Islands. The gods are destroyed; the maraes demolished; human sacrifices and infant murder, we hope, for ever abolished; and the people, every where, calling upon us to come and teach them."

These quotations, written at the time, by individuals on the spot, and who could have no inducement to attempt to deceive, will satisfy every candid mind, that Christianity was not introduced to Tahiti by force, and will fully exonerate the Missionaries from the malicious accusation brought against them.' Ib. pp. 34, 35.

Thus, the only war which has taken place in Tahiti, since any of the natives have embraced the Christian religion, occurred nearly twenty years after the date which Kotzebue assigns to the forcible establishment of Christianity in that island, and originated in a treacherous and unprovoked aggression of the idolaters.

But we have yet to notice the most diabolical part of Kotzebue's charge; that which ascribes to the religion taught by the Missionaries, and to the bloody persecution which they are accused of having instigated, the incredible and absurdly exaggerated depopulation of these islands. In the year 1797, when the first missionaries arrived, the period subsequently to which Kotzebue represents nine-tenths of the inhabitants to have been destroyed, the total population of Tahiti (including Taiarabu) did not amount to 17,000. The fallacy of the premises on which Forster rested his calculation, is satisfactorily pointed out by Mr. Ellis. His computation was founded on the number of fighting men present with the fleet of canoes collected at Pare in 1774, who, he was told, all came from two districts; and he multiplied what he supposed to be the average

number of men, by the supposed number of districts. It is obvious, that nothing can be more loose and conjectural than such calculations; and Mr. Ellis remarks, that he should have multiplied by five, or, at most, by six, instead of by twenty-four or forty-three. Captain Cook, estimating the population by the number he saw collected at one place, multiplied by the geographical extent of the island, carried it as high as 200,000; and this in an island which Kotzebue represents as not containing at present more than 8000 souls! There can be no doubt, however, that the South Sea Islands were at one period far more populous than they are at present; and it appears also, that, prior to their discovery by Captain Wallis, depopulation was taking place to a frightful extent, and in an accelerating ratio. Tati, a native chieftain, said with great emphasis to one of the Missionaries in 1815: 'If God had not sent his word at the time He did, wars, infant murder, and 'human sacrifices would have made an end of the small rem'nant of the nation.' Human sacrifices, according to native testimony, had been of comparatively recent introduction into Tahiti; but, soon after they were first instituted, they were offered with great frequency, and in appalling numbers. The depopulation which has taken place during the last two or three generations, is fully accounted for.

In addition to a disease, which, as a desolating scourge, spread, unpalliated and unrestrained, its unsightly and fatal influence among the people, two others are reported to have been carried thither; one by the crew of Vancouver in 1790, and the other by means of the Britannia, an English whaler, in 1807. Both these disorders spread through the islands; the former almost as fatal as the plague, the latter affecting nearly every individual throughout all the islands. Next to these diseases, the introduction of fire-arms, although their use in war has not, perhaps, rendered their engagements more cruel and murderous than when they fought hand to hand with club and spear, has most undoubtedly cherished, in those who possessed them, a desire for war, as a means of enlarging their territory, and augmenting their power. Pomare's dominion would never have been so extensive and so absolute, but for the aid he derived, in the early part of his reign, from the mutineers of the Bounty, who attended him to battle with arms which they had previously learned to use with an effect which his opponents could not resist. Subsequently, the hostile chieftains, having procured fire-arms, and succeeding in attaching to their interest European deserters from their ships, considered themselves, if not invincible, at least equal to their enemies, and sought every opportunity for engaging in the horrid work of accelerating the depopulation of their country. Destruction was the avowed design with which they commenced every war, and the principle of extermination rendered all their hostilities fatal to the vanquished party.

Another cause most influential in the diminution of the Tahitian

race, has been the introduction of the art of distillation, and the extensive use of ardent spirits. They had, before they were visited by our ships, a kind of intoxicating beverage called ava; but the deleterious effects resulting from its use, were confined to a comparatively small portion of the inhabitants. The growth of the plant from which it was procured, was slow; its culture required care; it was usually tabued for the chiefs; and the common people were as strictly prohibited from appropriating it to their own use, as the peasantry are in reference to game in England. Its effects also were rather sedative than narcotic or inebriating. But after the Tahitians had been taught by foreign seamen and natives of the Sandwich Islands, to distil spirits from indigenous roots, and rum had been carried to the islands in abundance as an article of barter, intoxication became almost universal; and all the demoralization, crimes, and misery, that follow in its train, were added to the multiplied sorrows and wasting Scourges of the people. It nurtured indolence and spread discord through their families, increased the abominations of the Areoi society, and the unnatural crime of infanticide. Before going to the temple to offer a human sacrifice to their gods, the priests have been known to intoxicate themselves, in order that they might be insensible to any unpleasant feelings this horrid work might excite.

These causes, operating upon a people whose simple habits of diet rendered their constitutions remarkably susceptible of violent impressions, are, to a reflecting mind, quite sufficient to account for the rapid depopulation of the islands within the last fifty or sixty years.' Ellis's Polynesian Researches, Vol. I. pp. 106-108.

Of the existence and activity of these causes of depopulation, -infanticide, human sacrifices, frequent wars, debaucheries, and the diseases introduced by profligate Europeans, Kotzebue could not be ignorant; in fact, he elsewhere admits the facts; and yet, he has the effrontery to represent the bloody intro'duction of the religion of the Missionaries' as the sole cause of the desolation, antedating its introduction nearly twenty years, to give colour to his malignant falsehood! With equal truth might it be alleged, that the labours of Brainerd have occasioned the rapid decrease of the native tribes of North America. That the Russian Captain could be so stupid as to believe his own representation, we cannot imagine. However this may be, the philanthropist will rejoice to learn, what indeed could not have been doubted by any rational person, that although, sixteen years ago, the nation appeared on the verge of extinction, since the year 1820, the population has been rapidly increasing. Mr. Ellis estimates the present number of inhabitants in Tahiti, at about 10,000; in Eimeo and Tetuaroa at (probably) 2000; the Leeward Islands are supposed to contain an equal number. The total population of the Georgian and Society Islands, together with the adjacent clusters, with which the natives maintain constant intercourse, and to which Chris