138 MYSTIC ISLES 



bottles the sugary odor of Tahiti rum permeated the hot 

 air. The captain of the Potii Moorea and the hired 

 steward began to set the table for the dejeuner and to 

 prepare the food, some of which was being cooked a few 

 feet away by the- steward's kin. The guests disposed 

 themselves at ease to wait for the call to meat, the bands- 

 men lit cigarettes and tuned their instruments or talked 

 over their program, while they wetted their throats with 

 the rum, as admonished by the "Himene Tatou Area- 

 reaJ" 



I strolled down the road along the shore of the lagoon. 

 Here was erected the first Christian church in this archi- 

 pelago. British Protestant missionaries, who had led a 

 precarious life in Tahiti, and fled from it to Australia in 

 fear of their lives, were induced to come here and estab- 

 lish a mission. The King of Tahiti, Pomare, had fled 

 to Moorea aftfer a desperate struggle with opposing 

 clans, and he welcomed the preachers as additions to his 

 strength. The high priest of the district, Patii, col- 

 lected all the gods under his care, and they were burned, 

 with a Bible in sight, to the exceeding fear of the native 

 heathen, and the holy anger of the other native clergy, 

 who felt as Moses did when he saw his disciples worship- 

 ing a golden calf. On the very spot I stood had been 

 the marae, or Tahitian temple, in which the images were 

 housed, now a rude heap of stones. A hundred years 

 ago exactly this exchange of deities had been made. 

 Alas! it could not have been the true Christ who was 

 brought to them, for they had flourished mightily under 

 Oro, and they began almost at once to die. Not peace, 

 but a sword, a sword of horrors, of frightful ills, was 

 brought them. 



