The missionary's reward

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THE MISSIONARY'S REWARD.

LONDON :

Preface

When I was in England two years since manyfriends expressed a strong desire that I would publish the statements which, on various occasions, I had made, as illustrative of the power of the gospel on the minds and conduct of the savage and idolatrous inhabitants of the Great Pacific. At that time, my engagements were too numerous to allow me to comply with their wishes. It was then suggested that I might prepare a small work for publication during my passage to Tahiti, and agreeably to this suggestion the following pages were written. This will account for the want of reference to the present state of affairs at Tahiti. This omission is, however, well supplied by the Introduction of my valued friend and former pastor, the Rev. John Angell

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James, who has, in terms equally faithful and affecting, described the mournful condition of that once peaceful Island. Nothing but the hope that the facts narrated in these pages, many of which have come under my own observation, and others collected from authentic sources, may prove useful and encouraging to the friends of Missions, would be a motive sufficiently powerful to induce me to present them to the public.

GEORGE PRITCHARD.

Introduction

Tahiti, once the theme of holy song, and the boast of Christian piety, has become a name of disastrous import. The history of this beautiful island, with the exception of one short episode, has been written in blood to be read with tears. When brought out of its deep seclusion amidst the waters of the Pacific by Wallis, and afterwards presented more conspicuously to British observation by our illustrious but unfortunate navigator, Captain Cook, it concealed under the exterior covering of its picturesque scenery, and the enticing manners of its inhabitants, a cruel idolatry, and vices the most revolting : even the very semblance of virtue was unknown, and man appeared superior to the beast by an intellect that was employed only to render him more systematically and bewitchingly wicked. Thither, in the year 1796, sent by a Society then recently formed, of all denominations of evangelical Christians, for the conversion of Pagan nations, proceeded a band of holy and devoted men, impelled by no motive but love to God and souls, to convert these savages to the religion which they themselves professed. For sixteen long and weary years, they laboured without so much success as the' salvation of a single idola-

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ter to reward their self-denying course and apparently hopeless exertions ; but with a zeal that seemed to acquire intensity by defeat, and a perseverance which disappointment could not wear out, they continued at their post, amidst " abominable idolatries " which shocked their piety, obscenities that revolted their purity, and cruel orgies that severely tested their powers of endurance. In vain during all this time did they endeavour to prevail upon the deluded Tahitians to put a stop to infanticide, promiscuous concubinage, human sacrifices, and murderous wars : but they laboured on in prayer and in hope.

At length the time to favour Tahiti arrived, and ci the set time was come : " God poured out his Spirit on its inhabitants, and led them to see the wickedness of their ways. The reward of their patient and enduring zeal now came in rich abundance upon the faithful and devoted men who had quitted the precincts of civilization to dwell among savages, and the more sacred territories of religion, to take up their abode among idolaters ; — the false gods were abolished, and the places of their detestable rites were destroyed ; and with the cruel and licentious superstition that originated them, retired all the filthy and obscene practices which had covered with pollution those scenes, with the loveliness of which they stood in hideous contrast. Christianity in all her power to reform, to govern, and to bless, and in her once primitive simplicity as she appeared when apostles introduced her to the world, took peaceable possession of Tahiti : under her beneficent reign not only was the worship

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xi of the true God through the mediation of Christ set up, Christian churches formed, the Scriptures translated, places of worship erected, the sacraments administered, and the Sabbath observed, but constitutional government on the basis of law was established, and the stream of civilization, ever waiting to fill the channels opened by evangelization, flowed in with all its rich and inestimable deposits. Religion and morality had begun to add new beauty to those romantic scenes where nothing but idolatry and crime had hitherto flourished in rank luxuriance.

What is here said of Tahiti, may with equal truth and justice be said of many other islands, and groups of islands, both in the North and South Pacific. By the blessing of God upon the labours of the American Board of Foreign Missions, and of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, as well as upon the labours of the London Missionary Society, more than one hundred of these secluded spots, once the dark domains of Satan, have renounced his yoke, and submitted to the sceptre of Christ.

In proof of the truth of this statement, I refer those who would delight their minds by dwelling on one of the most pleasing pictures ever presented to the human mind, to read Stewart's 6 Account of the Progress of Christianity in the Sandwich Isles ; ' Ellis' 6 Polynesian Researches ; ' Williams' ' Missionary Enterprise,' with Prout's interesting life of this noble martyr ; and Mr. Ellis' ' History of the London Missionary Society,' the first volume of which is just published, and of which a writer in ' The Foreign Quarterly Review' says, "It is one of the most

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charming compositions of the kind we ever met with, — pleasing in style, ample in detail, without being in the least tedious — it leaves nothing to wish for." These publications will satisfy every reader of the reality and the beneficent nature of the change produced by Protestant missions in the islands of the Pacific.

To these inestimable works is now added another, by an individual whose name has acquired a notoriety which he could have as little expected as he could have desired — I mean Mr. Pritchard, formerly the useful missionary, and subsequently the active, energetic, intrepid, and persecuted British Consul at Tahiti.

When the prospectus of the following work was submitted to me with a request froin its author, in consequence of my having been formerly his pastor, to write an introduction to it, I was inclined to doubt whether anything could or need be added to what Mr. Ellis and Mr. Williams had already communicated in their more extended and elaborate publications ; but on perusing the sheets, which I did not till they were in print, I was led to the conclusion, that the subject is too interesting ever to tire by a repetition of facts ; that this new recital would tend to confirm the statements which have been already given to the public ; that the notoriety acquired by Mr. Pritchard's name, will most certainly secure attention to any thing he may put forth on the affairs of the mission ; while the testimony which he bears as an eye-witness to much that he relates is of itself so pleasing and so important, as to make this new publication a welcome addition to our missionary information.

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This work is not intended by its Author to form a consecutive history of the Polynesian missions, but merely a collection of specimens of their results, from which may be inferred the nature and the value of the great moral change which has been effected by then- agency, and the direful consequences of that interruption to the work which has been so ruthlessly carried on by the aggression of France. Making no pretensions to literary elegance, rejecting all those studied embellishments which might be artistically grouped to form a picturesque narrative, Mr. Pritchard relies on nothing to interest the readers of his book, but u a plain unvarnished tale" of facts. His instances of individual conversions, give us a more vivid conception of the kind of moral revolution which has been wrought in the islanders of the Pacific, than volumes of general description, however eloquently written. Take, for example, the closing events of Mahine's life, or the death-bed scene of Maoae, as they are here described, and especially the brief memoir of Keopuolani. Queen of the Sandwich Islands, and by looking at these instances, which are but a few out of myriads, what an impressive idea do we gain of the wondrous change produced by Christianity as preached by our missionaries and enforced by the powerful eloquence of their holy lives. Here will be seen, not a mere change of external custom, but of internal character — not only a polish of the surface, but a change of the very substance — the man himself, in his habit of thought, volition, feeling, and action, is made literally a neAv creature ; it is not his religious ceremonies only that are altered, but his very mind, and heart, and soul ; it is not merely

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the substitution of a crucifix elegantly carved, for his wooden image rudely fashioned that has taken place, nor his genuflexions before the one for his prostrations before the other, but the displacing of all his cruel, licentious, and selfish passions, by the purity, the mercy, the truthfulness, and the happiness which, whether in the savage or the civilized man, are the invariable results of faith in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Nor is it merely an account of evangelization which is here presented to the public, but of civilization, its inseparable effect wherever it takes place among barbarians. Christianity involves, of necessity, all the principles of human refinement, and comprehends the seeds of endless improvement, so that over whatever region it flows, however barren of intellect and virtue, it deposits a soil in which these seeds spring up to bear the fruits of social order and individual enjoyment, as well as of religious exercises. The printing-press, the plough, and the loom, cannot be long after the cross. It would be contrary to fact to affirm that in no case has civilization been carried on apart from evangelization, but it is a deduction from universal experience, that the preaching of the cross is not only the most certain but the most speedy and the most effectual method of raising the savage into the civilized man. Let any one read the account of the High School at Lahainaluna, connected with the mission at Hawaii ; or of the printingoffice at the same place ; or of the cotton-manufactory built of hewn stone ; or of the sugar-cane plantations, with their accompanying difficult process of sugar-boiling ; or of any other of the numerous trades which

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XV in its course of progressive improvement, so artlessly detailed in this little work, civilization has begun to put forth, and say, what benefits our Protestant missions have conferred on the inhabitants of Tahiti, and the other islands of Polynesia. These have been accredited by other witnesses than the missionaries themselves. Many of the commanders of our British ships of war, as well as of our merchant vessels, who have visited Tahiti, have, without conference, and unasked, borne their willing and honourable testimony to the beneficial change wrought by the labours of our missionaries in that island ; to whose testimony, grateful reference is made in these pages. And if nothing more were to result from the mission to Tahiti, and if it were now to end in blood and slaughter, still it will have served an important purpose in the moral theories that affect the destinies of our world, by the demonstration it affords, that no lengthened and elaborate process of civilization is necessary to prepare barbarians for the reception of Christianity. Both in the Pacific Ocean and among the Hottentots and other savages of the African deserts, the attempt to teach the people reading, writing, and the useful arts, was abortive, till they received the gospel and were brought under the motives to industry, which it alone supplies, and then afterwards civilization with rapid strides followed in its train.

Mr. Pritchard's volume comes too late to surprise and delight us by the charms of novelty ; it has been anticipated by others already mentioned : but let it xvi

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only be conceived that nothing had been heard of our missions to the islands of the Pacific till we read this work ; that we had received no previous preparation by other publications, for its facts ; that our mind had been called by this work to make its transition from the revolting scenes described by our missionaries as existing in Tahiti, before its conversion to Christianity, to those which are here exhibited ; that by a sudden shifting of the scene we had seen the idols, with their human sacrifices, obscene orgies, the Areoi societies, and infanticide ; the sanguinary wars and their ferocious customs, all pass away, and in their place the Christianized state of the people as here depicted, rising up before us, what a deeply interesting volume would this be found ; how eagerly would it be read ; what a sensation would it produce ; and how much would it be talked of : and it is only because it comes in the rear of its great predecessors that these results will not follow its publication.

Alas ! that we should have now to turn from triumphs to tribulations, and instead of having to tell that Tahiti is still the scene of the unmolested and peaceful labours of the missionaries, and of the onward progress of Christianity and civilization, should be compelled to relate that it is the seat of a horrid oppression, an exterminating war, a general disruption of society, and a fearful suspension, if not a total extinction, of all missionary operation. To borrow the expressive language of the writer in the Foreign Quarterly already alluded to, " 1 am reluctant to approach the sequel, and contemplate the intruders rushing like a hog into a flower-garden, to

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xvii uproot and to destroy what the hand of industry had planted." Or, to borrow a somewhat analogous and scriptural allusion, that we should have to exclaim in words of truth and amidst sighs of anguish, " The boar out of the wood doth waste our vine, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it." It is not necessary, nor would it be convenient, here to go into the details of that horrible aggression which has been made by a nation, which boasts of its military glory, its chivalry, and its refinement, upon the female sovereign and the defenceless people of Tahiti ; but though, for obvious reasons, the odious and affecting tale of French aggression may not here be told, yet nearly the whole civilized world has heard by this time, with unutterable disgust, of its successive robberies of that defenceless country, first of property, and then of sovereignty — of its Protectorate forced upon the protesting Queen and her outraged subjects — of its imposition of Popery at the cannon's mouth — of the perfidy, fraud, and violence of its authorities ; and as the climax of its audacious and violent conduct, of the arrest, imprisonment, and expulsion of an accredited British functionary. These things are become matter of history, and will produce equal astonishment and abhorrence. In reference to the last act of aggression, the Prime Minister of our country acknowledged in his place in the House of Commons, " That a gross outrage, accompanied by gross indignity, had been committed upon a British Consul." Happily, a far greater calamity than even what has happened at Tahiti has been averted, and which, though at one time feared, and not altogether improbable, has always been deprecated xviii

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by the friends of the Missionary Society — I mean a war between England and France.

In what a melancholy and heart-rending state has this aggression left the devoted island where its atrocities have been perpetrated ! When the last accounts came away the Queen was still a fugitive on board a British ship of war, dependent for subsistence as well as protection both for herself and her children upon the bounty and magnanimity of its generous commander ; the natives, goaded by indignities, wrongs, and oppression, almost too great for human nature to endure, had unhappily taken up arms ; sanguinary conflicts likely to end in the extermination of the weaker party had commenced ; the mission churches were dispersed and the exercises of public worship suspended ; the missionaries had most of them fled from the scene of tumult and blood to the Leeward Islands ; and that spot, once so peaceful and so happy, had become a scene of devastation and blood. " The confused noise of the warrior," never heard since Tahiti had received the Gospel, now rolls along those valleys where lately was heard the sound of the chapel -bell, the voice of the preacher, and the hum of missionary schools ; while the thunder of artillery, the moans of the dying, and the shriek of widows whose husbands have fallen in battle, are reverberated from those mountains which till lately, echoed to no sounds less glad or holy than the songs of the multitude who keep holy the Sabbath. Alas, alas, what a change ! Who, upon contemplating this sad scene and its authors, can help thinking of Mr. Hall's eloquent description of the invasion of Egypt by

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Napoleon Buonaparte? "Whilst he was looking round him, like a vulture perched on an eminence, for objects on which he might gratify his insatiable thirst of rapine, he no sooner beheld the defenceless condition of that unhappy country, than he alighted upon it in a moment. In vain did it struggle, flap its wings, and rend the air with its shrieks : the cruel enemy, deaf to its cries, had infixed his talons and was busy in sucking its blood, when the interference of a superior power forced him to relinquish his prey." Everything in this striking metaphor is applicable to the present case but its conclusion. The vulture is not scared away, but still holds in his talons, and sucks the blood of, his struggling, shrieking, and, I am afraid I must add, expiring victim.

Of these calamities, however, the final issue is yet uncertain ; whether the labour of half a century is to be unravelled by the blood-stained and crafty hands which are at work there now, or whether in a way unthought of by human wisdom, He whose path is in the deep and who covereth himself with clouds, will make justice, truth, and piety, to triumph over oppression, error and irreligion, remains to be seen. Little is to be expected from France in the way of relinquishing her prey, either from foreign diplomacy, or from the compunctious visitings of her own conscience, but it is not improbable, if we may judge from the tone of some of her papers, that policy may yet do that which nothing else is likely to effect. One would fain hope that her government must be ignorant of all the facts of the case, that deluded by the false representations of such men as Dupetit Thouars, Briiat, D'Aubigny, and others still more crafty, though

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not more cruel, it has been thus led to give its sanction to the establishment of a Protectorate which amounts to a virtual dethronement of a sovereign, who has done nothing to merit such cruel indignity and oppression. Is there no way of access direct to the ear of the King of the French ? Would he sanction this did he know the facts of the case ? Is M. Guizot himself in ignorance ? Did he not say in his place in the Chamber of Deputies, " The French force was bound to keep right on its side. We think it did not do so.* * *There were no instructions, there was no utility or necessity, neither was there justice towards the Queen and the natives. We are of opinion that the establishment of France in new regions, should not be accompanied by an act of violence towards the people among whom it appears for the first time." Is there no means of reminding M. Guizot of his own declarations ?

In the mean while, there is much for us to learn and much for us to do in reference to these calamities. It is unnecessary to ask for the sympathies of the Christian public on behalf of the insulted and fugitive Queen, her ill-treated subjects, the scattered churches and perplexed missionaries : but one there is who has especial claim upon the respectful and tender regards of his fellow-countrymen, and fellow- Christians — one whose person was arrested and confined in a dungeon without the shadow of an accusation, where for ten days and nights, separated from his wife and family, suffering from bodily affliction, his very life was in constant danger — whose property has been destroyed — whose character has been maligned by every species of calumny, down to the most

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disgusting and filthy caricatures, by the malice of the French press — and who, upon his expulsion from the scene of his official duties, was obliged to leave his wife and part of his family in the hands of his persecutors, with only one short and furtive interview with these dear objects of his affection, without knowing how or where he should gain another interview with them, or whether that interview would be held in this world or the next* — surely such a man, and such is Mr. Pritchard, deserves especially, I say, the sympathy of all who can feel for a sufferer, and who are convinced that he has done nothing to render his sufferings only an act of righteous retribution.

It will perhaps excite the surpise of some in reading the following volume, that Mr. Pritchard has suffered so favourable an opportunity, as is furnished by its publication, to pass by without embracing it, for, exposing, which by ample documents he could do, and exhibit a series of acts on the part of his opponents characterized by a duplicity rarely met with, the conduct of the destroyers of the independence and peace of Tahiti ; for pourtraying his own sufferings ; and for entering upon his defence against the attacks of slander. His office as British Consul forbids the one ; a noble magnanimity has made him indifferent to the second ; and the third is needless. The British Government have been his defenders, not only by private testimonies, but by the more public and emphatic one of still continuing their confidence in him, and appointing him as

* Since then Mrs. Pritchard and her three daughters, who fled from Tahiti to Valparaiso, have arrived safely in this country.

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their Consul at the Navigator's Islands. This testimony would have been more complete, of course, had he gone back to Tahiti ; but from a knowledge of the disposition of the French authorities towards him, a wish to preserve the tranquillity of the two countries, ana also to avoid all occasions of collision, of which it may be justly feared that too many will continually occur as long as the Protectorate continues, it has been thought proper not to send him to the same station, though still to the same consular jimsdiction. Here is his justification before his country, France, Europe, and the whole world, in this declaration by then* acts that he has done nothing to forfeit the confidence and esteem of the government that employs him. The London Missionary Society, whose agent he once was, and whose devoted friend lie still is, will follow him to his new station with their affection and respect ; while the public, who know him, and at the same time, love, commiserate, and esteem him, believe none of the stories that malice has invented for calumny to circulate. This is his defence ; and it is enough. If anything else were wanting, his justification will be carried through the civilized world by the able article in the Foreign Quarterly Review, which with singular ability has sifted and exposed the whole Tahitian affair.

It is now quite time I should consider in what state of mind ice as Christians, and as the friends of missions, should regard these calamities ; the lessons we should learn from them ; and the duties they call upon us to discharge.

And do they not call upon us to enquire, wherefore

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the Lord has thus chastened us, and to examine whether in our spirit and conduct in reference to Tahiti in particular, and to the other scenes of our success in the Pacific, there has been anything displeasing in his sight? Have we in our delight over our triumphs been boastful and vain-glorious, till we have forgotten to give Him the glory ? Has our joy been sufficiently purified from self-elation, and characterized, as it should have been, by humility and gratitude ? It is a time, and a call, for close examination and profound humiliation. The affliction will do us no good if it does not lead to this. It becomes us to bow down under the chastening hand of our God. Even this cometh from the Lord, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. He has permitted it for wise ends, we are quite sure. Perhaps it is to infuse a greater degree of devout seriousness into our whole missionary procedure, to check our levity, to cure our frivolity, to expel from our meetings and our spirit, something of that noisy excitement and unseemly humour and merriment, by which they are sometimes too much characterized. Tahiti was our earliest mission, and if by the death of this we shall be prepared to conduct ourselves better towards all the rest of the family, it will not be in vain, that for a season we have been called to put on sackcloth and to mourn as for a first-born. Instead then of merely exposing the injustice of the French Government or the craft of Popish priests, let us look well to our own spirits. It is a little remarkable, and is a coincidence worth noticing, that this cloud should have come over us xxiv

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just as we were about to celebrate the jubilee of our society, and when we are soou to commeuce a new period iu its history : and it will be our wisdom, as it certainly is our duty, to summon into existence, and to exercise, more of the deep and hallowed feeling of the fathers and founders of our institution. They laid its foundation in faith and prayer, but we perhaps haye thought to build its walls by eloquence and excitement. Affliction sobers the mind, checks yolatility, and calls forth a manly and resolute temper which is prepared for great and noble deeds. Uninterrupted sunshine, and a constant high temperature, enervate the frame, which the frosty nights and the cloudy days of winter brace and invigorate. If these disastrous events should prove sanctified afflictions to us ; — if they should make us more solemnly in earnest ; — if they should cause our zeal to flow less in the noisy shallows, and more in the deep, though silent, channels of the majestic river ; — if they should make us more meditative and prayerful ; — if they should produce that resolute, intrepid, martyrlike courage which can exist only in trials and tribulations — a rich compensation in the future awaits us for the present loss, however costly, grievous, and deplorable that loss might be.

TTe should equally beware of a spirit of despondency. That we have much to fear for Tahiti, apart from the extirminating conflict now going on, if indeed it has not already ended in making the island the tomb of its adult male population, is but too evident. Apart from the insidious arts of Jesuit priests, think of the rank and putrescent profligacy now let loose upon the

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XXV people by a French soldiery and sailory, the unrestricted sale of ardent spirits, and the introduction of corrupting -port-, and you will see the peril in which morality and religion are placed. Still remember that all that has been done cannot be undone. Paganism, with all its horrid progeny of vice and misery, will no more pollute the land. Popery, though in our view a dreadful perversion of Christianity. >hould it succeed in its attempts to establish, itself in the island, is far better than the Paganism which once reigned there : and notwithstanding the perils of war. of bad example, and of Jesuit persuasion, there are. it may be hoped, not a few who. amidst this desolating flood, will stand fast upon the rock of ages. Or if fleeing from an island, embittered to them by such sad recollections and such odious corruptions, they will then carry with them the precious truths they have received, which, like seed borne upon the wings of the wind, will drop and vegetate on other spots. But if even these hopes should not be realized, still there is one source of consolation remaining, and that is, that French force and Romish zeal cannot reach to heaven, where much of our labour is laid up beyond the reach of violence and injustice. The glorified spirits of just men made perfect, whose names this little volume preserves while it embalms their memory, and hundreds like them, cannot be plucked from their spheres and again be exposed to the seduction of error or of vice : they at any rate will remain everlasting monuments of God's grace and our success. " Blessed men, ye were taken away from the evil to come, and should the