“SOUTH SEA BUBBLES:” BY THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND HIS DOCTOR.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 173, 29 April 1872, Page 3

“SOUTH SEA BUBBLES:” BY THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND HIS DOCTOR.

(From the Loudon Times.) In our notice of these volumes wc must state, at tho outset, that we intend to leave tho Earl, the Doctor, and the missionaries to fight their own battle out among themselves ; we are going to take neither one side nor the other ; and, if strong language is of any avail in a pretty hot argument, we should say that the Earl and Doctor, on the one side, and tho missionaries, on the other, seem to he perfectly well able to take care of themselves without any assistance from us or from others. The Earl and the Doctor are evidently careless of hell, book, and candle, and distribute their flowers of speech so equally among all sects that we should advice them to make no more trips to flic South Sea Islands until the little affair of this book has blown over. However, the quarrel is none of ours, and, although it is so fruitful a topic of the book that we are obliged to refer to it, we do not feel bound to give a verdict in favour of either party to the controversy. Perhaps our readers will see why, if we quote one of those “ flowers of speech ” alluded to above. Speaking of the \Vesleyans, the authors say : —“ Whatever good the Wesleyans do ‘ spiritually,’ the mischief they work commercially whenever they have a chance is beyond counting, and the common name of their missionary schooner, the Palm Oil ‘Trader,’ is, according to their own account, well deserved. If the Wesleyan Society had not published the facts themselves, I should have hesitated to state them. Can it be believed that out of the kindly credulous Tonga islanders, just struggling into civilisation, and whose every dollar, hardly earned, would be spent on the improvement of their country were it not for these canting sharks, they get the ‘ noble and astonishing ’ sum of £4,489 lGs 3d., which, with £1,550, received as class and oil money, make a total of £(5,000, being £3,500 above the current expenses of the Mission for the year, to assist in sending the glorious Gospel of Christ to regions beyond. (Wesleyan Mission Report, April, 1870.)” Here is a very pretty quarrel for Exeter Hall, but this is really a mild attack to some others made on other sects: the Roman Catholics fare no better. On the other hand, the highest praise is given to the London Missionary Society, who arc described as being “ wonderfully good, intelligent, liberal, practical men.” The Church of Eng’and also gets high praise. At a very early age the Earl,now j ust 21,made tho singular resolution to get a yacht, and go on “ from island unto island to the gateways of the clay,” with a scientific companion ; and the results of his travels are before us. His wonderful natural history collections are unfortunately with his ship at the bottom of the sea. When the last terrible catastrophe came, only eight inches saved us from another possible Tichboruc case. Two years were spent among these beautiful islands, the beauty of which, as our authors tell us, beggars description. Then the end came on a dark wild night ; there was a heavy concussion, another and another ; the great _ ocean rollers came leaping on board, tearing the little schooner to pieces from stem to stern ; there was no hope, for she must go over the reef into deep water in five minutes ; all shook hands cheerfully, and prepared for death ; yet as hour after hour went on the end did not come, and in the morning the boats were found to be becalmed on the lee of the ship, through the untiring dexterity and courage of the master. Tho morning found them in open boats, among islands which were cannibal, and to land on which was to die. Men who have, gone through such a scene as this, and through the iong and dangerous boat voyage which followed, with perfect good temper have a right to speak, and, what is more, some right to be heard. If they speak rather roughly and rudely at times, yet they speak of what they have seen. They are outspoken on other subjects besides missionaries. Their argument is that the missionaries have only varnished and not changed the native nature ; and from a scene or two in this book we should be inclined lo think that there is some truth in it. Certain it is that the moment the missionary’s back is turned, the native “ cancan ”is danced as violently as ever. In some islands, when the ‘dd Adam gels uppermost, the natives retire to the mountains to he naughty for a season, and conic back good. It is impossible to get rid of the habit of (lancing among them. As wo see in Scotland the people will dance, though their church lias discouraged .and denounced it for three centuries; it is hard to make au Englishman or a Welchman dance —it is impossible to stop a Scotch- | man, an Irishman, or apparently a South | Sea Islander. Society in the South Sea i Islands must he terribly degraded. Tho account of Tahiti prepares one for a great deal, but not for all. There seems to bo anu utter abandon of decency We can really only hint at facts which, the Earl states pretty plainly, but the fact seems to be that there is no morality of any sort or kind. Tho author tells of (Tv fa continued.) j