So do

"Has the Feringhi cheap pardons? So have we. Can the Romanist by the mass rescue his ancestors from purgatory? We, by ceremonies at Gaya, can do the same for ours. Can the priest change the bread and wine into flesh and blood? Our muntras can impart divine attributes to images. Who are the Romish monks but the counterparts of our Sunyasees? Do the Catholics count their beads? we our malas. Do they pray to mother Mary? So do we to Ganga-mai. Do their priests eschew marriages? So do our Gosalies. Have they nuns? So have we our nach-girls, dedicated to the service of the temple. Do they boast their antiquity? Compare eighteen hundred years, the period they claim as the age of their church, with four jugs of Hindooism."

Such is the estimate placed upon the religious system of Rome by an enlightened Pagan. Does it not find a perfect parallel in the Catholic missionaries among the Indians of Green Bay, Michigan. As it is extracted from the Seventh Report of the Leopold Foundation, it comes from an undoubted source.

*

"The masterly painting of the cross, by Mr. J. R. Von Henepel, of Vienna, makes the altar not a little imposing. Upon two Indians who entered our church, sight of this crucifix made so deep an impression, that they cried out, this is the true God whom we would serve,' and there

the

upon received instruction and were bap

tized. *** Of beads, images, &c., we can not get enough; a beautiful rosary is no trifle for the Indians; they wear them constantly on the neck, and ask for them as unceremoniously as children."

The philosophy of the Romish church teaches that the paintings, the crucifix, &c., are only memorials or signs, to direct the spirit of the faithful to the worship of God through some object palpable to the outward sense. The same principles were held by the educated apologists of Egypt who excused the idolatry of their countrymen.

"The philosophers, say they, honored the image of God wherever they met with it, even in inanimate beings, and consequently much more in those which partook of life. They, therefore, are to be commended, who worship not the creatures, but the Supreme Deity through

*Translated for the N. Y. Observer.

them; which ought to be esteemed as so many mirrors offered us by nature, reflecting the divine image. The divine nature can not dwell in the artful disposition of colors, nor in matter which is subject to decay, and destitute both of sense and motion. As the sun, moon, air, heaven, earth, and sea are common to all men, but have different names in different nations; so there is but one mind, and one providence which governs the universe, though called by different names, and worshiped in divers manners, and with different ceremonies, according to the laws and customs of every country."Universal History, vol. i, p. 597.

Idolatry, every where as well as in all its forms and modifications, has an esoteric and exoteric meaning

this is adapted to the subtle inquiry of the casuist, and that is suited to the gross and unlettered condition of the popular mind. The masses, both ancient and modern, were and are idolaters.

As the Tahitians and Hawaiians had long been the victims of an op'pressive and bloody religious system, they rejoiced when their chains were broken; being satisfied with the religion of Christ as taught by the Protestant teachers; and delighting to worship him without the intervention of images, which appeared to them only more elegant as works of art than their own rudely hewn blocks of stone or wood, they could not consent to the reëstablishing of the old idolatry under a new form. But superadded to this is another reason-laws had been enacted prohibiting the importation and sale of ardent spirits. When, therefore, the new preceptors were found on the decks of men-of-war, alternating with casks of brandy, which were to be accepted at the hazard of learning their first lesson in the classical irony of the French, the natives could not entertain any other conviction than that such a religion was no better than their ancient system.

The reader will pardon the detention occasioned by the following exquisite passage in illustration of this topic, exhibiting the parallel drawn above as seen in the history of the

Aztec race. It is from the pen of one of the most elegant writers of the present age.

"The Roman Catholic communion has,

it must be admitted, some decided advantages over the Protestant, for the purposes of proselytism. The dazzling pomp of its service, and its touching appeal to the sensibilities affect the imagination of the rude child of nature much more powerfully than the cold abstractions of Protestantism, which, addressed to the reason, demand a degree of refinement and mental culture in the audience to comprehend them. The respect, moreover, shown by the Catholics for the material representations of Divinity, greatly facili tates the same object. It is true, such representations are used by him only as incentives, not as the objects of worship. But this distinction is lost on the savage, who finds such forms of adoration too analogous to his own to impose any great violence on his feelings. It is only required of him to transfer his homage from the image of Quetzalcoatl, the benevolent deity who walked among men, to that of the Virgin or the Redeemer; from the cross, which he has worshiped as the emblem of the god of rain, to the same cross, the symbol of salvation."-Prescott, Conquest of Mexico, vol. i, p. 291.

Such, then, being the universal sentiment of idolatrous nations, which we might still farther illustrate by the history of numerous tribes, is it a matter of surprise that the Tahitians and Hawaiians, after having maintained the Protestant religion for some years, should look upon the adoption of Romanism as "a step backwards towards the ancient idolatry?" Is it strange that the chiefs should reject the Romish missionaries as being dangerous to their peace, when we remember that for similar political considerations, the ambassadors of the Leos, Piuses, and Innocents, of the papal chair were banished from Britain, Sweden, and Germany after the Reformation, and are still rejected by the Protestant princes of Europe? We leave the obvious inferences from these facts to the intelligence of the reader.*

The curious student of such themes, whether Romanist or Protestant, we refer to the analytical dissertation of Conyers

This view of the nature of Roman worship is well known to almost every one who visits Polynesia, where the intrusionists have sought or obtained an entrance. In the Hawaiian group, there was no opposition manifested by the chiefs, missionaries, or people, until the priests were very strongly suspected, and with good reason, to have been concerned in an attempted rebellion under Lilika. This naturally excited the jealousy of the chiefs and people against the new teachers and their religion, regarding them as equally dangerous to the maintenance of government, the administration of wholesome laws, and the preservation of good order. Without referring to the testimony of the missionaries, which might be condemned as the evidence of interested parties, we give a brief passage from Capt. Wilkes's Narrative :

:

Middleton on the Conformity of Popery and Paganism.' And in passing to the next topic must place in connection with the above the following circumstances.

"The inhabitants of the isles of Peten -to return from our digression-listened ciscan Friars, and consented to the instant attentively to the preaching of the Frandemolition of their idols, and the erection of the cross upon their ruins. A singular circumstance showed the value of these hurried conversions. Cortés, on his departure, left among this friendly people

one of his horses, who had been disabled by an injury in the foot. The Indians felt a reverence for the animal, as in some way connected with the mysterious power of the white men. When their visitors had gone, they offered flowers to the horse, and, as it is said, prepared for him many savory messes of poultry, such as they would have administered to their own sick. Under this extraordinary diet the poor animal pined away and died. The affrighted Indians raised his effigy in stone, and, placing it in one of their teocallis, did homage to it, as to a deity. In 1618, when two Franciscan Friars came to preach the Gospel in these regions, then scarcely better known to the Spanjards than before the time of Cortés, one of the most remarkable objects which they found was this statue of a horse, receiving the homage of the Indian worshipers, as the god of thunder and lightning."-Prescott, Conquest of Mexico, vol. iii, p. 294.

"In spite of the prohibitory law, [an early statute forbidding the introduction of any but the Protestant religion,] it is a notorious and indisputable fact, that the first Catholic priests, who landed in 1827, were kindly treated by all classes of natives, and by the Protestant missionaries. The American mission even furnished them with the books they had printed to enable them to learn the Hawaiian language. When, however, mass was first publicly celebrated, the converted natives in general took an aversion to that mode of worship, as it appeared to them a step backward towards their ancient idolatry; and the very circumstance which, had they continued heathen, might have been an inducement to adopt, served now to alienate them from it.'

This estimate of the Romish worship, by the half-civilized, and halfenlightened people of the Hawaii Islands, is announced again in the "Manifesto" of Captain La Place, who plays such a conspicuous part in the history of the group. He says

"In fine, they [the principal chiefs] will comprehend, that to persecute the Catholic religion, to tarnish it with the name of idolatry, and to expel, under this absurd pretext, the French from this Archipelago, was to offer an insult to France, and to its sovereign."-Wilkes, vol. iv, p. 501, Appendix, 1.

It might be a matter of some interest to an enlightened statesman to inquire, to what extent French captains have the privilege of invading the rights of Americans abroad, of dishonoring the flag of the United States, and menacing the lives of those under its protection. Beside the flagrant outrages of La Place, in the transactions in which he figured, occurrences still more recent, in the Gaboon river, demand the serious attention of the American people. If the French government and its officers present themselves to the world as the agents in forcing rum and Romanism on the less refined nations of the earth, it may not be

* Wilkes, Exploring Expedition, vol. iv, p. 11. See also Letter of Kamehameha III. to P. A. Brinsmade, U. S. Commercial Agent, ibid, vol. iv, p. 505. Jarvis's History of Sandwich Islands, App., p. 394.

"Of the results which have flowed from the intercourse of foreigners with Polynesians, including the attempts to civilize and christianize them by missionaries, Tahiti, on many accounts, is obviously the fairest practical example. Indeed, it may now be asserted, that the experiment of christianizing the Tahitians, and improving their social condition by the introduction of foreign customs, has been fully tried. The present generation have grown up under the auspices of their religious instructors. And although it may be urged that the labors of the latter have at times been more or less obstructed by unprincipled foreigners, still, this in no wise renders Tahiti any the less a fair illustration; for, with obstacles like these, the missionaries in Polynesia must always, and every where struggle."

It has sometimes been a question with us, whether the presence of foreigners does not do almost as much injury to the Polynesians, as all the good accomplished by the missionaries. How this influence of for

eigners has been exerted, may be seen in the fact that they have retarded improvement, procured the murder of missionaries, and sought to have the mission establishments broken up. From a crowd of facts, we cite only a few.

The directors of the London Missionary Society, sensible of the necessity of a regular system of industry, to the maintenance of a rank among civilized and Christian nations, took measures to introduce the manufacture on the islands, sugar some eight or ten species of cane being indigenous. For this purpose they sent out machinery, and a gentleman who had long been acquaintWest Indies. Look at the sequel. ed with the processes adopted in the

"Early in the year 1819, the captain of a vessel, the Indus, whom purposes of commerce led to Tahiti, informed the king that Mr.Gyles's errand to Tahiti was merely experimental, and that, should the attempt to manufacture sugar succeed, individuals from distant countries, possessing influence and large resources, would establish themselves in the islands, and with an armed force, which he would in vain attempt to oppose, would either destroy the inhabitants, or reduce them to slavery. These alarming statements were strengthened by allusion to the present state of the West Indies, where Mr. Gyles had been engaged in the manufacture of sugar and the culture of coffee.

** This view of the enterprise led Pomare to decline rendering that assistance which was expected, and the want of which retarded the progress of the work. The necessary labor required from the natives was paid for at a remarkably high price, and often difficult to obtain on any terms.

The result was, that the missionaries, under these circumstances, and the unfounded rumors thus brought against them, finding they could not succeed, abandoned the undertaking, and on the 14th of May, "to satisfy the king, and quiet the people, advised Mr. Gyles to return to New South Wales by the first conveyance."+

The same difficulties were encountered in the introduction of cotton manufacture, alluded to by Mr. Melville, p. 258. The traders assured the people that it would be injurious to the interests of the isl. ands, would prevent shipping from visiting them, &c.; offering to give for raw cotton twice as much cloth as they could procure at the factory. Sometimes they endeavored to persuade Mr. Armitage to abandon so hopeless a project as to train the people to habits of industry.‡

At the Sandwich Islands, the missionaries who landed March 3d, 1820, were greeted with similar difficulties. Unprincipled foreigners assured Liholiho that the missionaries would eventually strive to obtain possession of the islands-that

though the foreigners first went to the West India Islands in a peaceable manner, they afterwards attacked and defeated the inhabitants, hunted them with blood-hounds, and remained masters of the islands. After some time, however, these reports were so far overcome, that the missionaries were welcomed, and assigned to different stations.

Without stopping to quote Wilkes's Narrative and the records of the Missionary Society, or the Missionary Herald, we take another example occurring at the Tonga Islands.

The missionaries who settled at Tongataboo, from the Duff, April 12, 1797, were exposed to great danger from the savage conduct and continual warfare of the people. A convict from Botany Bay, named Morgan, came to settle on the island; he made himself obnoxious to the body by his stealing and improper conduct, when they complained to the chiefs. Morgan retorted that the missionaries were the cause of the pestilence then raging, that they shut themselves up to pray and sing, which was their way of sorcery, that their books were books of witchcraft, &c. He told the chiefs, " You are dying every day, and will soon be cut off, and the King of England will take possession of your islands." The chiefs rushed upon the missionaries and killed a number, while the others escaped to Port Jackson.||

The desolating effects of the licentious intercourse of the foreigners and natives threatening to exterminate the race, a law was passed by the Hawaiian government for its suppression. The missionaries were charged with the creation of this law, which produced the most violent opposition among the seamen frequenting the various ports of

§ Ellis, ii, 212. History of Missions, 2 vols. 410, "Sandwich Islands." Dibble, Hist. Sandwich Islands, p. 72. Jarvis's Hist. Sandwich Islands, 221. Ellis, iv, 31. Stewart, Private Journal, p. 157.

Mariner's Tonga Islands, p. 74; Missionary Voyage, 8vo, 1805, 342, 43.

that group. On the 5th October, 1826, soon after its passage, two of the crew of the ship Daniel, Captain Buckle, of London, called at the house of the missionaries, and charg ed them with being the authors of the law, and threatening them with a combined attack. The lawless behavior of the crew of this vessel, their desperation, the violence of their threats, and the visits they made to the house, compelled the teachers to barricade their house, from which they were afraid to stir for some time. Captain Buckle offered his men muskets and ammunition for the attack on the missionary dwellings.*

Still more infamous than this was the conduct of Lieut. John Percival, and the crew of the U. S. schooner Dolphin, Honolulu, 1826. For the details of their proceedings reference may be had to several sources.t

Such has been the influence of foreigners, and could the long catalogue of fearful crime be known, the people of Britain and America might well weep over their shame.

The external forms of heathen society, and the institutions which characterize its history, together with the more hideous crimes which darken its page, are overthrown with comparative ease, by the force of Christian truth, and the example of civilization witnessed in its teachers, but having achieved this, the missionary has a far more critical and prolonged task to perform. He must take the most difficult materials and shape them into order, and if possible, mould them into a divine image. He must take the human soul and emancipate it from the bondage of fear-he must take the most utterly depraved heart and cleanse it in the Siloam pools of life -he must take the mind, dark as the Po, to which it looks forward

* Journal of Rev. Mr. Richards. See Hist. of Missions, vol. ii, p. 325.

Tracy's Hist. of Missions, p. 184; Jarvis's Hawaiian Islands, p. 263.

without a ray, and shed upon it a beam of holy light-he must take the savage nature of the lion and the hyena, and transform it to the similitude of the lamb and the dove -he must accomplish that which all the proud philosophy of man, the lofty creations of genius, and the humanizing influences of civilization can not effect-present it, a lovely adumbration of the Deity, at the foot of the Redeemer. The magnitude of this work can be really appreciated only by those who undertake its accomplishment.

The state of morals in the South Sea Islands, during the reign of paganism, may be learned from the following graphic account of what occurred on the death of Moomooe, the king of the Tonga Islands.

"As the funeral was to take place today, [May 2, 1797,] brother Bowell went with Ambler to Bunghye to see the ceremony, and found about four thousand persons sitting round the place where the fiatooka stands. A few minutes after our arrival, we heard a great shouting and blowing of conch shells at a small distance; soon after about an hundred men appeared, armed with clubs and spears, and rushing into the area, began to cut and mangle themselves in a most dreadful manner: many struck their heads violently with their clubs; and the blows, which might be heard thirty or forty yards off, they repeated till the blood ran down in streams. Others who had spears, thrust them through their thighs, arms, and cheeks, all the while calling on the

A

deceased in a most affecting manner. native of Feejee, who had been a servant of the deceased, appeared quite frantic; he entered the area with fire in his hand, and having previously oiled his hair, set it on fire, and ran about with it all on flame. When they had satisfied themselves with this manner of torment, they sat down, beat their faces with their fists, and then retired. A second party went through the same cruelties; and after them a third entered, shouting and blowing the shells: four of the foremost held stones which they used to knock out their teeth; those who blew the shells cut their heads with them in a shocking manner. A man that had a spear, run it through his arm just above the elbow, and with it sticking fast run about the area for some time. Another, who seemed to be a principal chief, acted as if quite bereft of his senses; he ran to every corner of the area,