could be taken with it, but thunder was forthwith heard in the heavens. The symbolical marks, which are apparent on the plumage and texture, indicate that many hundreds of human victims have been sacrificed, during its gradual making and extension, when the sundry monarchs, by whom it has been worn in succession, wrapped themselves with its folds, as their insignia of authority. This sacred maro has, therefore, never been completed, nor might have been, so long as the ancient system continued, for it was intended to be lengthened to the end of time, or at least to the end of empire in the island. Hence, almost every handbreadth of the patchwork that composed it represented a separate reign, and reminded the national chroniclers of the prince's name, character, achievements, and the main incidents of his time; this robe might be regarded as an hieroglyphic tablet of the annals of Raiatea. Tamatoa has cast off this relic of idolatry and sent it, as another trophy of the gospel victories here, to the Museum of the London Missionary Society.

Nov. 24. We have just had a remarkable instance of the occasionally limited locality of rains in these latitudes. At the settlement there has not been a shower all day; but on the mountain-tops, immediately adjacent, such floods have fallen that we can count twelve cascades pouring down with great impetuosity and in large volumes, over the rocks into the valleys, from heights of not less than three or four hundred feet.

CHAPTER XXV.

Visit to Opoa, the chief Seat of ancient Idolatry-Public Festival-Singular Appearance of the FeastersSpeeches-Tea-drinking-Breaking up of the Company-Expulsion of an Idolater from the ChurchIngenious Scruple-Den of the Evil Spirit-StrataCreatures of the Sea-Romantic Tradition-Confessions of Infanticide-Marriage of Aimata and Pomare of Huahine-Confessions of a Sorcerer-One Hundred and Fifty-one Persons baptized.

1822. Nov. 30. We have just returned from a visit to Opoa, the metropolis of idolatry, not in Raiatea only but throughout all the South Pacific Islands, within a compass of five hundred miles. Hither, from every shore, human victims ready slain were sent to be offered on the altar of Oro, the god of war, whose principal image was worshipped here with the most bloody and detestable rites. To describe the various maraes and their appurtenances, the priests and their sorceries, the sacrifices, feastings, and fightings of the votaries, at this hideous rendezvous, would only be to exhibit in aggravated language scenes of disgusting horror, similar to those which have too frequently perhaps already occupied our pages. Opoa was also the residence of the kings of this island, who, beside the prerogatives of royalty, enjoyed divine honours, and were in fact living idols among the dead ones, being deified at the time of their accession to political supremacy here. In the latter character we presume it was that these sovereigns (who always took the name of Tamatoa) were wont to receive presents from the kings and

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chiefs of adjacent and distant islands, whose gods were all considered tributary to the Oro of Raiatea, and their princes owing homage to its monarch, who was Oro's hereditary high-priest as well as an independent divinity himself. Happily nothing but the ruins of maraes remain, and Opoa, flourishing in all the unpruned luxuriance of tropical vegetation, is one of the loveliest and most peaceful spots in all these regions of beauty and fertility. The population, since the removal of the king and his family to the Missionary station on the shore, having forsaken their former haunts, this place, which for ages scarcely knew quiet by day or by night, is now a solitude.

Dec. 4. This day was celebrated as a public festival by the inhabitants of the settlement. The entertainment was prepared on the large patu, or stone pier in the sea, commencing at the length of a plank from the beach. On the last occasion of the kind, about six months ago, the company squatted on their hams according to the ancient practice, except the members of one family, who had provided a sofa, a table, and knives and forks for themselves, to the admiration, if not the envy, of all the rest. To prompt the people to industry, and by industry to increase their domestic comforts, the Missionaries at that time had strenuously recommended that all who meant to join in partaking the good fare at the next opportunity should, if possible, supply themselves with the like accommodations. And so cordially was the advice received, and so diligently acted upon, that, though a thousand persons dined together on this occasion, all were seated on sofas, chairs, or stools, with convenient tables before them, on which their provisions were decently set out, and around which they enjoyed their social meal in such a manner as had never been witnessed before in their own or their fathers' times.

Before day-break, the people began to make the necessary arrangements. The rough coral pavement of the patu was overlaid with fresh grass, and an awning of native cloth was expanded over the whole space to be occupied, so as effectually to protect them from the fierce rays of the sun. Before noon all things were ready, and the guests had taken their places; where each family found their own food, principally vegetable, and cooked in various ways. A few brought baked hogs and fish. The tables were covered with purau-matting, and native cloth. The utensils upon them, as may be imagined, were very miscellaneous. Those who had plates, knives, forks, spoons, crockery, or metal wares of any kind which could be used in eating or drinking, exhibited all their tana papa (foreign property), and handled the strange things with more dexterity, but not with more good humour than might have been expected, where each was determined to do his best and to be pleased with what his neighbours did.

A large space in the centre was set apart for the Missionaries and the Deputation, where a table and chairs, with suitable covers, &c., were very satisfactorily furnished under an awning

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for our accommodation. We never beheld a more singular, nor indeed a more animating spectacle, when the eye contemplated it, with all the warm and grateful associations awakened by it in the mind. We counted two hundred and forty-one sofas, and about half as many tables; the latter abundantly loaded with the rich provision which Nature throws from her lap at the feet of her children in these remote nurseries of those who may yet be considered in their minority; and where they have little more to do than to gather up her bounty from the ground, or, for healthful exercise, climb the trees to pluck it. There they sat on every side of us, men and women, with their boys and girls, on the right hand and on the left, family by family, so cheerful and orderly that it verily did us good to look upon them, motley as appeared their costume and their dinner services, while they "did eat their meat with gladness, and singleness of heart-praising God."

All the people, young and old, rich and poor, on these occasions, apparel themselves in their best; and we were not more surprised than pleased to behold them, in general, so decently, and, in many instances, so gracefully clad; though, in others, the mongrel mixture of European and native habiliments, on the same shoulders, was not a little whimsical. An aged chief, who was so wealthy as to possess both a white shirt and a black coat, had put the former over the latter, taking care that some of the cloth should be seen at the bosom, and the laps fall below the linen behind; while an ample roll of native cloth was wound about his body. Some of the men had three tibutas (upper robes) piled one upon another, and not a few women seemed loaded with flowered and figured garments of native or English manufacture. Hats of bark or rushes, neatly platted, were worn by one sex, and bonnets of the same materials, ornamented with silk or purau ribbons, curiously coloured, by the other.

After dinner various chiefs and others addressed the company, in brief and spirited appeals to their memory of the abominations of past times, and to their gratitude for the glorious and blessed changes which the gospel of Christ had wrought among them. They compared their present manner of feasting, their improved dress, their purer enjoyments, their more courteous behaviour, the cleanliness of their persons, and the delicacy of their language in conversation, with their former gluttony, nakedness, riot, brutality, filthy customs, and obscene talk. One of the speakers observed, "At such a feast as this a few years ago none but kings, or great chiefs, or strong men, could have got anything good to eat; the poor and the feeble, and the lame, would have been trampled under foot, and many of them killed in the quarrels and battles that followed the gormandizing and drunkenness." "This," said another," is the reign of Jehovah-that was the reign of Satan. Our kings might kill us for their pleasure, and offer our carcases to the Evil Spirit; our priests and our rulers delighted in shedding our blood. Now, behold our persons are safe, our property

is our own, and we have no need to fly to the mountains to hide ourselves, as we used to do when a sacrifice was wanted for Oro, and durst not come back to our homes till we heard that a victim had been slain and carried to the marae."

A shower of rain coming on in the afternoon, the assembly broke up for an hour or two, but rallied again in the evening upon the patu, to drink tea or enjoy, as they call it, pape mahanahana-warm water. By the bye, warm water seems to have been a luxury unknown in these islands before the visits of Captain Cook. No utensils for boiling were found among the natives-no such process was employed in their cooking. An iron pot, when they had been taught the use of it, was the most acceptable present to a king or a queen, and the richest booty that a thief could lay his hands upon, when all were thieves by instinct, and had scarcely an idea of dishonesty, or rather, had none of honesty. The equipage for tea-drinking was quite as heterogeneous as the dinnerservices had been. Some had kettles, and others had tea-pots; these could manage very well together if, in addition, one could raise a cup, a second a saucer, and a third a porringer. A few-a few only-had got tea, many had no sugar; but every one had something-whether an ingredient or a utensil-employed in preparing or partaking this favourite refreshment. A spoonful of tea, for example, was put into a kettle full of water, and brewed into a beverage very passable for such accommodating palates as were waiting to taste it. One party heated water in a frying-pan, and were happy to exhibit so precious a sample of outlandish luxury to their less fortunate neighbours. But the principal supply was from a large vat, or sugarboiler, which was brought down to the shore and filled with water slightly sweetened, but without any infusion of the Chinese plant. The variety of drinking-vessels was ludicrouspots, plates, delf-ware, porringers, cans, glasses, and even bottles; but principally cocoa-nut shells, their own native and elegantly-sculptured cups. More enjoyment, with less indecorum, among so numerous a company of revellers, is rarely to be found in this world, where a feast and a fray are so often concomitants as to convert the words themselves into synonymes in certain regions even of civilized Europe.

When tea was over, and the company began to retire, it was amusing to see the people setting off to their homes in every direction, by land and water-these with their tables, sofas, and chairs, hoisted upon their shoulders-those carrying away their goods on board of canoes, or floating them on bamboo rafts, which they paddled along the coast. The owners themselves, to their credit, were in general the makers of their respective pieces of furniture, from the elaborate sofa to the joint stool, with the exception of the front pillars of the former, which were handsomely turned by the only four artizans in the island who were privileged to use the lathe; and, as these cunning craftsmen received a bamboo of cocoa-nut oil (nearly

three quarts) for each pair of legs which they furnished, they had carried on a profitable trade during the last six months.

At nightfall nothing was to be seen but the flitting or fixed lights in the scattered dwellings, and nothing to be heard by the casual passenger but the song of praise or the voice of prayer in family circles at their evening devotions.

Dec. 6. At the evening meeting for the baptized, an old man who had lately lost his wife was charged with the heathen custom of having presented an offering to her spirit, by placing on the bed where she had usually reposed certain provisions for her use. The accused denied the fact; but two deacons of the church being despatched to his house to examine the evidence of his guilt, presently returned with two pieces of sugar-cane, a fresh banana, and a cocoa-nut shell with some of the water of the fruit in it. The culprit still held out, and said that he had set the food there for his cats; but he was silenced by one of his neighbours coolly asking, whether it was usual for cats to eat sugar-cane? His fault, however, was directly brought home to him by a witness, who deposed that he himself had gone into the forlorn widower's house and asked him for that very cocoa-nut, which the latter refused, alleging that he had given it to his dead wife, and could not take it back from her. Thus convicted and confounded before the whole assembly the old man acknowledged his offence, and begged to be forgiven, saying, "I loved my wife; we had lived very happily together; and, as her spirit might perhaps choose to come home again, I thought it would be a grievous thing if she should find no food prepared for her." Had he pleaded his affection, in mitigation of his superstitious infirmity at first he would only have been reproved and pardoned on expressing due penitence; but his contumacious denial, and perseverance in wilful falsehood, had excited so much indignation that it was proposed that he should be excluded till he became repentant from the same. There were about six hundred men and women present, and these, by a vote so nearly unanimous that there were scarcely ten exceptions, adopted and confirmed the sentence of exclusion. These people are very jealous and watchful against any revival of idolatry, and visit every apostate symptom with the severest penalty which their congregational discipline will allow.

Dec. 7. Some persons were found guilty before the local tribunal, this morning, of having killed a wild hog in the mountains, which they appropriated to their own use. As these ani. mals, feræ naturæ, are royal game, each of the poachers was adjudged to make five hundred fathoms of twine, towards the manufacture of a public fishing-net, for the benefit of the whole settlement. At the time of passing it, this sentence seemed wise and equitable; but one of the chiefs started a difficulty which could not in an instant be disposed of by unsophisticated minds, only just ceasing to do evil and learning to do well. "Would it be right," said he, "to eat fish which had been caught in a net made by

men who had broken the law?" Such questions (and such are frequently asked of the Missionaries) may be deemed trifling and even foolish by superficial reasoners; but, in the circumstances of these converts from a system of moral imposture to a pure faith, they discover awakened intellect as well as genuine conscientiousness; and it is only by thus feeling their way with the most delicate application of their best faculties, that they can arrive at the whole truth on any point of doctrine or practice.

Dec. 9. We visited several maraes on the northern side of the harbour, accompanied by an old man named Hopo, who though a professed, and we would hope, a real Christian, has an imagination haunted with many superstitious terrors connected with the idolatry under which he grew grey, and which, though the spirit be willing, the flesh is too weak to shake off entirely. At the extreme western point there is a vast projecting precipice, to the foot of which the sea flows. Up this steep eminence the spirits of the departed were said to climb on their way to the Po, and Hopo says he has often seen them ascending, both men and women. The Po is a mysterious and unexplored cavern at the top of a neighbouring mountain, probably a volcanic crater, communicating, by subterranean passages, with a cave on the coast, which was shown us to-day, and the aperture to which is so small that a child of two years could scarcely creep into it. Hopo told us that this was the den of the varua ino, or Evil Spirit, who'sprang out of it on careless passengers, and dragged them into its darkest recesses to devour them. The whole neighbourhood was so awful to his feelings that he would not accompany us to the ruins of an adjacent marae, where multitudes of the corpses of combatants slain in battle had been either buried or left to rot above ground. Many fragments of skeletons were still mouldering around this dilapidated temple of the god of war. Mr. Tyerman having brought away a skull, when we overtook Hopo he cried out with horror, Tia papau! the term by which they equally designate any relic of the human frame, or the spirit itself—that which survives death. The old man could not be prevailed upon to come near the frightful object; and, when we had to ford a stream which interrupted our path, Mr. Tyerman's servant would not carry him across till he had laid it out of his hand. He found a boy, however, who carried it over after him at the end of a long stick. In passing several houses, men, women and children, were all alarmed, and exclaimed, "Tia papau!" So difficult is it to eradicate from the mind impressions which have "grown with our growth, and strengthened with our strength." Having stopped at a neighbouring spring which spread into a pool, and Mr. T. having taken some water into the scull to cleanse it from the earth within the crannies, several natives observed the water dropping from it upon the ground, and, judging whence it had been drawn, they exclaimed, in lamentable tones, "Uae nei !-alas, our bath is polluted!—our bath is polluted!"