RETURN TO SANTA CHRISTINA. 23 



ning, and rain, denoted our approach to an 

 insular mountain-land. 



On the 19th of February, La Dominica and 

 Santa Christina were in sight. We sailed through 

 the narrow channel which separates these two 

 islands, and on the following morning cast anchor 

 in Resolution Bay, Santa Christina. The ship was 

 scarcely moored, before Eutiti, and several other 

 principal chiefs of the island visited us in their 

 canoes ; whilst crowds of inferior natives flocked 

 on board, and continued to be our daily visitors. 

 They informed us that seven sail, British and 

 American, had touched at this port since our last 

 visit. 



We found our missionary friends zealously 

 occupied ; but no alteration had taken place in 

 their professional prospects. The natives con- 

 tinued to behave towards them with propriety, 

 and to a certain extent with kindness, but had 

 not as yet manifested any disposition to receive 

 instruction, or to abolish any further their heathen 

 prejudices. A congregation of fifteen or twenty 

 persons, including Eutiti and his family, assem- 

 bled in the valley of Vaitahu for Christian wor- 

 ship on the Sabbath morning ; but their attend- 

 ance was capricious, and more the result of 

 persuasion, or intended as a compliment to the 

 missionaries, (who addressed them in the Mar- 



