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CHAPTER III. Infanticide—Mr "Williams' experiences—Modes of infanticide—Motives—The Areois—Extirpation of the practice—The children's festival at Raiatea—Second despatch of the Duf—Failure of the enterprise—Arrival of the Nautilus in Matavai Bay—Ill- usage of the missionaries—Disruption of the party—Evil influence of European seamen—Singular mode of baptism—The missionaries' letter to the Society—Critical position—Assassination of the high priest—Murder of Mr Lewis. At the commencement of 1798 the missionaries had a public conference with the king, his father, and other influential personages, at which they explained, through the medium of Peter the Swede, that their object in settling at Tahiti was not only to teach the inhabitants to read and write, and instruct them in the craft of the carpenter and the blacksmith, but to give them the knowledge of divine truth, to wean them from the worship of false gods, and to show them the way to eternal happiness. In return for the benefits they were eager to confer, they implored the Tahitians to desist from human sacrifices and the destruction of infants. To render acquiescence with the latter demand more easy, they undertook to build a house for the reception of the children that should be spared, and to rear and educate them with as much care and attention as they bestowed upon their own offspring. Without accepting this benevolent offer, the chiefs at once promised that infanticide should cease, and admitted that it was a practice which could not be defended. No steps, however, were taken to insure the fulfilment of the promise, and their childrencontinued to perish until Christianity was recognised as the only true religion. Again and again did the missionaries entreat parents to confide to their tenderness the expected babe, ...
