Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1856-10-25
No. 25

A.
access 70 the territory and trade of Japan. As for
India, the Able Dubois acknowledged, after 8
quarter of century of labor, that he had only
made between two and three hundred converts
that two-thirds of these Pariahs and the rest
outcasts OF one sort or another; several of them
having become Christians to obtain release from
evil spirits, by whom they supposed themselves
possessed. The relief failing, they reapsed into
Paganism. No one convert became q Christian
from disnterested motives ; and those who remain
ed so were the very worst the Able declares of all
who had listened 70 his teachings. He adds that
his brother missionaries in other parts of the coun-
try had succeeded no better. 1t was their failure
which induced their successors to try the high
caste Brahmins and princes first and the members
of the Madura mission did this BY declaring them
selves Brahmins of higher caste still, producing
a parchment to show that the Jesuts were de-
scended from Brahma himself. Surely Xavier did
better than this in cOnfessing in his letters to Lo
yola, that the minds and manners of the people
rendered their conversion impossible and in sur
rendering the enterprise rather than conduct it by
a series Of lies He left the country after nearly
three years of fruitless efforts. His way was to
show himself in the neighborhood of settlements.
and ring bell to bring the people together. At
first he fancied they heard him gladly, and espe-
cially the children, whom he drew to him, and in
structed to mpart to their parents what they heard
from him. he taught them ereeds, prayers, and
commandments, and left them under the care o.:
catechists but they all fell back as mir have
been expected. Malabar seems to have ben tie
only fruitful field and that was because the Por-
tugese owned the territory, and afforded facilities
for the establishment of the inquisition at Goa.
So much for Asia.
As for Africa,-the resort to the kings in the
first instance did not answer well there. Not long
after Vaseo de Cana rounded the Cape, the mis-
sionaries of Rome were seen in Abyssinia, where
they converted the monarch. The people and some
of their chiefs, however, were obstinate in their
old faith and q civil war of above century long
was the consequence. When the war was over,
the Jesuts proposed to help the kings to govern
and their interference with secular affairs undid the
whole effect of their religious aetioa,-small as
that was in the Way Of conversion. Christianity
was disgraced and banished, and every priest was-
martyred, except the very few who found means to
abscond. In COrg0, some Dominican missionaries
presently obtained some footing, which was i'm
proved by series Of Franciscans but the Portu-
guese traders who followed them into the country
brought discredit on the Christian name by their
prOhigacy. Such is the reason assigned by the
priests for their failures. judging by the expert
ence Of other countries, the allegation may be true
enough but there is another side Of the story,
according to which the missionaries we're pretty
nearly as ignorant and superstitious the people
they went to teach. Fourteen Capuchins at once
went, in the same vessel, in 1884, to visit the
Queen Of Matam5a on the Recommendation of the
their views and proceedings, as cited in Murrays
Z" History OF Discoveries in Africa" convict them
more unquestionably of ignorance and folly than
the statements Of any enemy could do. They were
evidently chosen, not for their sense and selfpos
session. but for their excitableness under the
Of zeal and their credulity under the Of faith.
They began with believing that every drop Of white
blood must be drawn from their bodies before they
could live in Africa and one Of them reports his
having been Dl0oded ninety-seven times. The per-
severance with which they 60 on glOrying in con-
versions which they have to bemOan afterwards as
hoaxes, is really astonishing. Their belief in the
magic of the heathens, and in the miracles wrought
by their own cross, is simply sign Of their time
but in other respects their reports manifest none of
the sagacity which is often found curiously anal
gamated with the most unreasoning missionary
zeal The tricks with which they boast of terrify-
ing the heather ,-smearing the Virgin with blood.
to make the people fancy her heart was broken st
their idOlatry, and so forth,-are related with
gles which makes it anything but O wonder that
the work of such hands should have left no surviy-
ing trace. All the fourteen Capuchins were worn
down into fever with the labor of baptizing tho
converts who hocked to them but when they com.
planned of the peoples neglect of the ordinances
which should follow baptism, or when their requi-
sitions ineOnvenient, the negroes betook them
selves to their idol-groyes, turn and turn about
with Christian observancss. To negroes, the mis-
sionaries did not scruple using the whip, and es-
pecially to the women, who could not retaliare in
kind. The ladies, however, found their own modes
Of revenge. A princess was once hogged for having
appeared in procession at the heels OF an idol;
and she declared herself convert at once, by the
argument of the lash but somehow, the holy
fathers found the ladies of the court thenceforth
always in their way Above ali, they could never
sit under their own ewes, nor enjoy the beauties
of their garden for the court ladies were always
bathing in primitive style in the stream just appO-
site. That matter ended in their building high
wall, which deprived them Of the landscape. When
they were on their travels, women were for ever
coming in bathing simplicity, to ask for baptism
and they amused themselves by throwing on the
priest the embarrassment of finding clothing for
them. Others howled all night 50 that the holy
men could get no sleep while the common joke Of
men, women, and children was to announce, IA Of
ten as possible in every journey, that wild beasts
were coming. to induce the priests to exhibit them
selves rs gymnastic spectacle, scramSing up trees
in their black cloaks with horror in their faces.
That glt have been good fun on the one side, and
holy martyrdom on the other IN its day. But tits
all over and gone, like other artificial phases Of
manners. Not trace is left in those regions now
of the Portuguese or their faith. In Africa as IN
Asia, it was all failure in the long run.
That it was the same in America, except in the
ca-e Of Paraguay, already dealt with, can be no
wonder, considering how conversion was set about
there The priests themselves our infOrmants
about this and rather than leave Us in Ignorance
of the number Of souls they freed from the pI,
they tell US how they managed to save such mul-
titGds The holy men who laid on the whip so
efectually in Congo. boasted of 100000 converts.
In the frst-discoYered lands of the New World,
% the people were driven to baptism as beasts to
the water" the missionaries relate. The figure
insinuates a notion of unwilingness on tho partot
those rescued from Satan and Oviedo says OF the
Indians in Cuba, that 80 there was scarcely any
one. or but extremely few that willingly became
C.;a.;.rau AZ ha.L .hn,. ,r;ahnd only for q new