the present condition of the Islands from personal observation, being totally ignorant of the language, and having for only a few days touched upon their shores! Yet, upon such testimony, testimony which, in any court of justice, would be held insufficient to convict a felon, the most malignant charges against the English and American Missionaries have been complacently received and propagated; and this by writers affecting philosophic liberality, judges in the court of literature! How is this to be explained upon any other principle, than that of the perversion of understanding induced by infidelity, such as the Jews were charged with by their inspired Prophets : "Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you." * We have had occasion, more than once, in former Numbers of our Journal, to advert to misrepresentations of a similar character. Our readers will have in recollection the charges insinuated against the American Missionaries at Hawaii, in Mrs. Graham's catchpenny quarto, founded upon the Voyage of the Blonde; and the general attack upon Christian Missions with which it was followed up by Mr. Barrow in the Quarterly Review. They will recollect the forged letter purporting to be written by Boki, a chief of the Sandwich Islands, which, after the proofs of its spuriousness had been pointed out, (the pretended writer being unable even to speak English,) Mr. Barrow persisted in holding up as genuine on the alleged authority of Lord Byron. They will also remember Mr. Orme's manly defence of the Missions, and his dignified appeal to their calumniator; the more distinct refutation of those charges furnished by Mr. Stewart in his Journal, and by the writer of an able article in the North American Review; and the distinct contradiction given by Lord Byron to Mr. Barrow's assertion, that the opinion of the Captain of the Blonde was in favour of the authenticity of the pretended letter of Boki. Mr. Ellis, in vindicating the Missions from the injurious misrepresentations to which some of Captain Beechey's statements have given rise, has thrown some further light upon this letter and the real source of the Captain's information. We regret that we had not the following Hab. i. 5. Acts xiii. 41. + Eclectic Review, 2d Series, Vol. XXVIII. p. 477. Ibid. Vol. XXIX. pp. 462-471. I have no hesitation in saying', writes his Lordship to Mr. Ellis, that I do not believe Boki either wrote or dictated that letter. It is not his manner of expressing himself; and you are aware that he can scarcely form his letters. I do not mean to say that the letter did not come from the Islands, but it certainly was manufactured by some other person.' paragraph before us, when we reviewed the Voyage of the Blossom, in which, however, it was easy to detect, beneath the mask of candour, a spirit of prejudice and detraction. I wish', says Mr. Ellis, I could congratulate Captain Beechey on having been more fortunate in the sources of his information, on his second visit to the Sandwich Islands, when he speaks of the disastrous consequences resulting from the demand made on the time of the natives by the Missionaries, and states, that "the chiefs lost their influence, the subjects neglected their work ;" and tells us of the ridicule of the Missionaries, and opposition to their plans, manifested by Boki and others, &c. I can readily believe that Captain Beechey was told all this, and a great deal more. But surprise mingles with regret, that he should have been so far imposed upon, as to make the pages of his book the record of what his better judgement might have convinced him was too childish to be seriously believed; such as the statement that the young king's trappings, viz. the "sword and feather belonging to the uniform presented to him, from this country, by Lord Byron," had been prohibited by his preceptor, under the impression that it might excite his vanity; and that his (viz. the young king's) riding, bathing, and other exercises had been restricted. Had Captain Beechey extended his inquiries a little further, he would easily have learned that these were not facts; and that attendance at the schools had never been other than voluntary on the part of the natives. But the communications made to Captain Beechey, of the effects of the influence of the Missionaries, in the alleged neglect of cultivation and diminished authority of the chiefs, and the statements contained in a certain letter from the Sandwich Islands, to which the forged signature of Boki was attached,-resemble each other so strongly, in many respects, as to force on the mind the conviction that both sprang from one source. Most readers will recollect, that the editor of a leading literary journal, in this country, was so far imposed upon by the speciousness of this letter, as not only to give it circulation, but to" pledge" himself " for its genuineness." I received a letter from Boki, in the native language, about the same time; and when I wrote á reply, I sent out to the Missionaries the Review, containing what had been published here as his letter, requesting that I might be informed whether he had ever written or signed it; and though his probable melancholy fate will prevent my receiving his own reply, the annexed extract from the monthly publication of the American Missionary Society, will shew that I had not misjudged in pronouncing that the letter was a forgery:" When the letter reached the Sandwich Islands from England, it was shewn to Boki by the Missionaries, and he was unable to read it. They made, therefore, a translation of it into his native tongue; and Boki, after having perused it, appended a certificate, in which he affirmed that the letter was none of his. This translation, with the original certificate, written by Boki, in the Hawaiian language, is now at the Missionary rooms." It cannot but give the Editor of the Quarterly Review satisfaction, to learn that the state of things in the Sandwich Islands was not such as that letter, if authentic, would have led his readers to suppose; and it must occasion him regret, that he should inadvertently have aided in its circulation. Vindication, pp. 156-159. We know not whether this is the language of an amiable excess of candour or of merited sarcasm; for there is not the slightest reason to believe that the Quarterly Reviewer regrets any thing but the detection of the forgery. Mr. Ellis proceeds to notice an article in a recent Number of the Edinburgh Review, of which Captain Beechey's work has furnished the occasion, but which may truly be said to be the limbo of all the 'calumnies cast upon the South Sea Missions by their most in' veterate enemies.' It is due to Captain Beechey to observe, that it is not to be inferred that the representations of the Reviewer, though placed in so near a connexion with his work, are supported by his authority. The writer of the article, indeed, quotes a passage which the Captain has too inconsiderately penned; but he must bear alone the responsibility of all the gross violations of justice which the comment contains. These are so very evident, that, as in many other cases of a similar kind, the slander corrects itself. What but feeling of an infatuated animosity could lead any writer of the present day to tell the British public, that the inhabitants of Tahiti are still “ as much savages and barbarians as ever, or rather that they are worse "that the only effect of the change produced amongst them has been to degrade Christianity to the level of the most brutish idolatry, without making one step towards raising these miserable idolaters to the rank of Christians"-that "drunkenness is universal"—that "Otaheite, in fact, may be described as one vast brothel "-with many other imputations, as opposed to truth as they are to benevolence. To follow the writer through these assertions, distinctly, would be to travel again over the whole ground which I have trodden in the preceding pages. I shall content myself with asking him, in reference to one of his assertions, if he has never heard that the knowledge of reading is possessed by the majority of the population, and that the New Testament is translated and widely circulated amongst the people? If he has read of these effects of Missionary labour, to say nothing of others, will he, in the face of such facts, declare that the Tahitians have not made" one step towards raising" themselves" to the rank of Christians?" Or is reading, in the opinion of his school, one of the "vices" which the natives have borrowed from civilization, by which it is dishonoured? As to the rest of his charges, if the reader is satisfied with the testimonies which I have adduced from Captain Beechey himself, and others who can be suspected of no partiality towards the natives, I am confident that I have thrown over the character of the Christian portion of the community, a protection from which the envenomed shafts of the Reviewer will rebound upon himself. In taking my leave of these critical opponents of the Missions, I cannot but remark, that it is not very flattering to the pride of this world's philosophy, to see those who hold themselves up as the cor rectors and reformers of mankind, persecuting with their enmity, the humble attempts of a body of Christians to ameliorate the state of a neglected portion of their fellow-men, by means of that gospel which its Divine Author designed for the "healing of the nations.' Vindication, pp. 160–162. With regard to the Russian Captain, Otto Von Kotzebue, his enmity against Christian Missions had long been known to us; and it seems only to have become the more inveterate with time and disappointed malignity. Ten years ago, the publication of his first voyage of discovery, (performed in the years 1815-1818,) made us acquainted with his sentiments on this point. In that work, he deprecated any attempt to convert the amiable, virtuous, and gentle Islanders of the Pacific, affirming that the Missionaries, by the religious hatred which they excited, had destroyed whole nations. Not that they had as yet excited any religious hatred at Hawaii; for no missionaries had then set foot on the Sandwich Islands; and in truth', remarked Dr. Chamisso, (the naturalist who accompanied the expedition,) they could promise themselves but little fruit among this sensual people. Christianity cannot be established in Eastern Polynesia, but on the overthrow of every thing exist'ing. We do not doubt the events at Otaheite', added the learned Naturalist, but we cannot conceive of them. The Russian expedition did not visit the Islands of the Southern Pacific. In reference to the existing religion of Hawaii, or Owhyhee, the same Dr. Chamisso gives us the following particulars. 'The human victims who are here killed at the death ' of the king, princes, and distinguished chiefs, and buried with 'their remains, are of the lowest class. In certain families of this caste, the fate of dying with the different members of such and such a noble family, is hereditary, so that it is 'known at the birth of a child, at whose death he is to be sa'crificed. The victims know their destination, and their lot 'does not seem to have any terrors for them. . . Human 'sacrifices still take place, but it would be unjust to upbraid 'the Owhyeeans for them. They sacrifice culprits to the 'gods, as we sacrifice them in Europe to justice. Every land has its peculiar customs. What were the Christians when 'auto da fes were celebrated, and how long have they ceased?'t This ingenious apology for the last atrocities of superstition, which confounds all shades of crime under the specious name of customs, and compares the rites of Moloch and the infernal barbarities of the Spanish Inquisition, with the sanctions of P. 30. Eclectic Review, 2d Series, Vol. XVIII. penal justice, is in admirable harmony with Captain Kotzebue's panegyric upon the 'precepts of pure morality interwoven with the ceremonies' practised by these same Owhyheans. In illustration of which we need only cite two facts. Such was the sanctity imparted for the time to any individual who performed a tabu-pori, (a sort of vigil, during which he was supposed to be in communion with the gods,) that, if he accidentally touched a woman, she must have been immediately put to death; and had he entered a woman's house, it must instantly have been doomed to the flames. This was the religion of these people! So late as about the year 1806, the old King Tamehameha, of whose enlightened religious views, Captain Kotzebue was the panegyrist, offered three men in sacrifice when his queen was ill, because the priests declared that her illness was occasioned by the anger of the gods, and that nothing else would remove it. Ten men, we are informed, were secured; and had not symptoms of amendment appeared in the queen, would all have been massacred. Every land has its 'peculiar customs!' Again, as to their pure morality: M. Arago, who visited Hawaii not long after the death of Tamehameha, in 1819, describes the women of that island as shameless beyond all that is usually to be met with among the most degraded savages. This Traveller goes so far as to complain that the English had not already interfered to liberate the people from the absurd superstitions and barbarous customs which still prevailed, and to abolish the tyranny of the priests *. We know not what right the English or any other nation could have had forcibly to interfere in this business; but it is precisely for effecting the emancipation of the people from the yoke of a sanguinary superstition, and the unspeakable pollution of their morals, by the milder means of Christian instruction, that the Missionaries have provoked the malignant abuse of Captain Kotzebue and his coadjutors. These destroyers ' of nations', as the Russian Captain would designate them, have been trying the effect of introducing the light of Christianity among this sensual people, and with a success that has lessened the gains of those traders who profited by their vices, and thrown the most provoking obstacles in the way of European visiters, who were accustomed to riot there in the most unbridled licentiousness. And for this they are stigmatised as fanatics, tyrants, ignorant dogmatists, murderers. Of the present state of things in the Sandwich Islands, the following extracts from an official document addressed to the Secretary of the Navy of the United States, by Captain Finch, See Eclectic Review, 2d Series, Vol. XX. p. 79. |