OF THE

ESTABLISHMENT AND PROGRESS

OF THE

CHRISTIAN RELIGION

IN THE

ISLANDS OF THE SOUTH SEA;

WITH

PRELIMINARY NOTICES OF THE ISLANDS

AND OF THEIR INHABITANTS.

ILLUSTRATED BY A MAP.

BOSTON:

PUBLISHED BY TAPPAN & DENNET.

NEW YORK: GOULD, NEWMAN & SAXTON.

PHILADELPHIA: HENRY PERKINS.

1841.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1841,

BY TAPPAN & Dennet,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of

Massachusetts.

INTRODUCTION.

by Albect Smith.

MODERN missions have been regarded by one portion of the community with dislike, and by another with indifference. To the man whose attention has been long fixed upon this noble enterprise, and whose mind is familiar with its bearings upon the welfare of mankind, such a fact may seem almost unaccountable. And so far as opposition to this cause, or neglect of the means necessary to its success, is found in the bosom of the church, there is doubtless room for surprise as well as grief. But a large majority of the inhabitants even of Christian lands have no proper sense of the worth of the soul, and many are not fully convinced that salvation depends on a knowledge of the Gospel. We can hardly expect that those who bestow little or no thought on the great question of