PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 289 



esteem of almost all on board. An anecdote illus- chap. 

 trative of his character will be read with interest. *-^v-^- 

 The missionaries had for several years endeavoured ^826.' 

 to produce a change of religion in the island, by 

 explaining to the natives the fallacy of their belief, 

 and assuring them that the threats of their deities 

 were absurd. Hetotte at length determined to put 

 their assertions to the test, by a breach of one of the 

 strictest laws of his religion, and resolved either to 

 die under the experiment or embrace the new faith. 



A custom prevailed of offering pigs to the deity, 

 which were brought to the morai and placed upon 

 whattas, or fautas, for the purpose. From that mo- 

 ment they were considered sacred, and if afterwards 

 any human being, the priests excepted, dared to 

 commit so great a sacrilege as to partake of the of- 

 fering, it was supposed that the offended god would 

 punish the crime with instant death. Hetotte 

 thought a breach of this law would be a fair cri- 

 terion of the power of the deity, and accordingly 

 stole some of the consecrated meat, and retired with 

 it to a solitary part of the wood to eat it, and per- 

 haps to die. As he was partaking of the food, he ex- 

 pected at each mouthful to experience the ven- 

 geance he was provoking ; but having waited a consi- 

 derable time in the wood in awful suspense, and 

 finding himself rather refreshed, than otherwise, by 

 his meal, he quitted the retreat and went quietly 

 home. For several days he kept his secret, but 

 finding no bad effects from his transgression, he dis- 

 closed it to every one, renounced his religion, and 

 embraced Christianity. Such instances of resolution 

 and good sense, though they have been practised 

 before, are extremely rare in Otaheite, and in this 



vol. I. u 



