The Polynesian., 1841-01-02


has followed their Iabors, are unanswerable
arguments in favor of missions, tor no IKE
changes have occurred where they have
not been established Yet they raise poo
pie only to a certain point, when they c'ther
remain stationary. or rctrogradc; unless
indeed by initiating the Jcsuits in Paraguay,
and becoming their rulers, remodel thclr
polity, introducing the customs, laws ana
manufactures of Europe, and thus force them
as it were to be civilized. This may appear
to be an unchariablc conclusion, but it is far
otherwise, and in making it no ccnsurc Is III
tended to be implied upon them. However
faithfully they may devote themselves to
their work, as missionaries, this will be the
inevitable result. The reason is obvious
BY their own incinations and characters as
preachers of the gospel, they must nccessa-
rily confne themselves to moral and doctrin-
al teachings. Their hearers are engaged IN
every work of vice and crime, and even all
t!cir games and amuscmcnts paxtakc of sem
suaty. In proportion as they become in.
f,ucnccd by the new religion, they discon-
tiDuc their old customs, and the whole gov
crniAont must be rcvolution2cd. Dcspotism
must be ab0lishcd as inconsistent with their
ncw bclicl.-wars cease, and those sports
whose only merit consisted in their manly
activity-while they dcpravcd and corrupted
the mind, are necessarily iorsakcn. Indus
fry Is inculcacd both by prcccpt and exam
pie by their teachers, and every advice and
direction for culture of the earth, instruction
in simple trades, and engaging in new avo-
cations, given. But until some more power
inl motivc than the mere desire to be indus
trious is presented, or there is demand for
labor, men will not become so. Hope of re-
ward Is necessary to stimulate them. Thus
at Samoa the manners of the natives arc fast
becoming rcvolutionizcd, but the novelty of
the change will soon wear away, and unless
something occurs to employ their time pro-
itably to themselves, a moral reaction will
necessarily take place Their natures re-
main much the same: at present the desire
for learning, attending meetings, and other
sources of missionary instruction, which are
necessarily multiplied in order to keep the
minds of the natives alive TO these subjects,
will occupy them. But the experience of
missions shows that this soon pals, and un-
less something else is brought forward, they
will do those things in secret, which their
new laws may forbid, but which have been
by usage with them from time
The guilt in their view will
lay more in detection, than in any criminal
act itself. The brightest examples of true
conversion among the natives are those who
are the most engaged in steady occupations.
a nation may change its religion, and by so
doing those sources Of activity by which its
energies however wrongully drcctcd) were
tried, and hopes stimulated, are dried up: be-
cause in direct opposition to the spirit of the
new. Something must now intervene, for in
these islands the mere labor for Subsistence
occupies but small portion of time. else the
nation will perish, or return to their former
practices. Agriculture, trade and commerce
are now the resort, and as missionaries can
not engage profitably in them, and retain
their original character, for reasons which
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