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512 T H E G O S P E L M A G A Z I N E
Narratives, of distant adventures are generally pleasing: curiosity and credulity are, in some cases, favourable to our happiness. But when a story is told, the drift and tenor of which is to asperse character, the asserted facts become matter of suspicion, and ought, by the lovers of truth, to be received with great caution; and, in proportion to the injury they are calculated to effect, pains should be taken to ascertain their truth, and also the motives of the Author of them. In the present case, this has certainly not been done, otherwise it would have been found that the Missionary Society is wholly free from the blame imputed to it ; that some falsehoods are advanced by Amicus, and essential facts are intentionally omitted. If any friends to the Missionary Society read your Magazine, the first impression on their minds by the Article in question, will probably be unfavourable to the Directors of that Society. They may conceive poor Tapeoee, after wandering friendless in England nine months, reduced to a deplorable state of want and wretchedness : worn out, emaciated, and feeble, Mr. Kelso finds him, on the pavement of the metropolis, takes him to No. 30 Chapman Street, administers cordials, wraps him in warm blankets, and gradually restores him to health and vigour ; and, after keeping him near four months, at his own expense, neither the Humane Society, nor the Missionary Society, take the least notice of these benevolent actions. But, Gentlemen, this was not the case ; nor is it true that Tapeoee was selected by the Chief of Otaheite to visit this country to learn our customs, and to be educated in the knowledge of Christianity, that he might return to preach the Gospel in his native country. It is also an error to term him "a youth about twenty-eight years of age:" thirty- eight, would, I think, be very near the truth. Attention to dates and circumstances will, I trust, bear me out in those assertions ; and prove, to the numerous friends of the Missionary Society, that the men they have chosen Directors have not been indifferent to the necessities of the many Otaheitans, and other South Sea Islanders who have, at various periods, arrived in this country ; and have almost, in every instance, been thrown, improperly, on the humanity of the public for maintenance. Not one of these left Otaheite by any intimation from the Directors; by any request of the Missionaries on the spot; nor were the views of any of them on leaving their native island, in any manner connected with the Mission. All the Missionaries know, that by whaleing ships resorting to the Island, in distress for provisions, and men, the facilities for leaving the Island have been afforded ; desertions and deaths have frequently thinned the crews of ships so much, as to compel them to avail themselves of such resources as were within their reach ; for without men to row their boats, and work the ship at the same time, the captain of a whaler can have no hope of a successful voyage : to secure this, as far as in their power they persuade the islanders to embark with them ; and it is to be regretted, that, as in the case of the Lascars and Chinese, those who bring them here, by their own interested necessities, are not compelled to support and return them in safety.
Tapeoee left Otaheite in the year 1799, in the Betsey whaler, evi-