CONVERTS TO CHRISTIANITY. 201 



previously to this occurrence, should in so short 

 a period, acquiescing in the decree which de- 

 nounced their creed as error, and consigned 

 their sanctuaries to demolition, contentedly 

 submit to the total deprivation of all external 

 signs of religion. Karemaku had judgment 

 enough to perceive that this state of things 

 Avould not endure, and that a religion of some 

 kind was indispensable to the people ; he there- 

 fore resolved to set his countrymen a good ex- 

 ample, and yielding to an inclination he had 

 long entertained, to declare himself publicly a 

 convert to Christianity. In the same year, 1819, 

 Captain Freycinet, on his voyage round the 

 world, landed at Hanaruro, and a clergyman 

 accompanying him, Karemaku and his brother 

 Boki received the sacrament of baptism accord- 

 ing to the forms of the Catholic Church. 



At this time, a society of missionaries was 

 formed in the United States of America, for the 

 purpose of introducing Christianity into the 

 Sandwich Islands. Of the extinction of the an- 

 cient faith, which must of course facilitate their 

 undertaking, they had as yet received no infor- 

 mation. Six families of these missionaries arrived 

 K 5 



