man-catholic church. These priests soon contrived, ashas been described, to embroil the Windward Islands with France , and to bring them under usurpation bythat country. The result was, that here one of themost promising missions in the world was wrecked, andin its place a sad reign of violence, intemperance andlust was instituted. The French abolished the lawsagainst the importation and sale of ardent spirits to thenatives, placed the mission schools under the supervisionof their own officials, required that no language butFrench should be used in the schools, and forbade con-tributions to any foreign missionary society.
Under these circumstances the London Missionary Society could only withdraw from its enterprise inthese islands. As the best alternative, it transferred itsmissions in these islands to the Evangelical Society ofFrance . French priests have made great efforts to winover the natives to the Roman-catholic religion; but thenatives have been so well instructed by the English mis-sionaries, and are so fortified by the translations of theBible they possess and use, that they have continuedfirmly Protestant .
There are now in Tahiti sixteen churches with 1,663members, in Moorea four churches with 360 members,and in the Leeward Islands about 1,500 church-members.But in all the Society Islands there has been a sad phys-1cal deterioration and mortality of the natives throughthe intemperance and vice forced upon them by theFrench , It is ope of the miracles of missions thatthere are stil] any churches at all in these islands, and