Memoirs of the Life and Labours of the Rev. Samuel Marsden, of Paramatta, Senior Chaplain of New South Wales; and of His Early Connexion with the Missions to New Zealand and TahitiMarsden, Samuel
Religion
Memoirs of the Life and Labours of the Rev. Samuel Marsden, of Paramatta, Senior Chaplain of New South Wales; and of His Early Connexion with the Missions to New Zealand and Tahiti
Marsden, Samuel
Marsden, Samuel, 1765-1838; Missions -- French Polynesia -- Tahiti (Island); Missions -- New Zealand; Māori (New Zealand people)
The journal affords us repeated evidences of a phenomenon, which recent
occurrences in India have at this moment deeply impressed on the heart
of England,--one with which both divines and legislators ought to have
been acquainted (for it is not obscurely referred to in the word of
God), but which a foolish and spurious benevolence has led many to
deny--namely, that the most Satanic ferocity frequently lurks under
gentle manners, and is even to be found in connexion with the warmest
natural affection. Nothing, for instance, can be more affecting than the
meeting of Tooi and his sister, after the absence of the former in
England. Tooi himself anticipated _a scene_, and half ashamed, when he
saw his sister at a distance, tried to avoid the interview in public,
and requested Mr. Marsden to order off the canoe in which they were
approaching. But her love could not be restrained; in an instant she
sprang into the boat, fell on her knees, and clung to Tooi. He saluted
her in return; when she gave vent to her feelings in tears and loud
lamentations, which she continued for about an hour. "Tooi conducted
himself with great propriety, suppressing all his wild feelings, and at
the same time treating his sister with all the soft and tender feelings
of nature. I could not but view his conduct with admiration." When Tooi
was in England, he had been taught to read and write, and instructed in
the doctrines of Christianity; and he and his companion Teterree were
general favourites, from their gentle manners and quick intelligence.
They were one day taken to St. Paul's by Mr. Nicholas, who naturally
supposed they would be lost in astonishment at the grandeur of the
building, but they expressed neither surprise nor pleasure; on which
that gentleman makes this just remark; "It is only things of common
occurrence, I suspect, that strike the mind of a savage. The faculties
must be cultivated to fit them for the enjoyment of the beautiful or the
sublime." One thing, however, did strike them, and caused no small
excitement. In walking up Fleet-street, they suddenly stopped before a
hair-dresser's shop, in the window of which were some female busts. They
screamed out "Wyenee! Wyenee!" (Women! Women!) taking them for dried
heads of the human subject. "I took some pains," adds their kind
conductor, "to beat this notion out of them, lest they should tell their
countrymen on their return that Europeans preserved human heads as well
as New Zealanders."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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