AN UNCONVERTED NATIVE. 283 
drowned ; others were starved to death by cold 
and hunger ; and the greater portion, who lived 
to return home, had laid the foundation of diseases 
which rendered their future days miserable, or 
brought them to an untimely grave. The young 
man of whom I am now speaking began visibly 
to decline in the spring of the year 1829 ; and a 
very short time proved that his disease was too 
deeply fixed ever to be eradicated. He could 
scarcely ever be prevailed upon to take medi- 
cines ; never, indeed, except at the earnest per- 
suasion of one of the Missionaries. He placed 
liis whole confidence for his recovery in the 
superstitious rites of the priests, whose tapus 
and other observances and requirements, in the 
end, greatly hastened his death. He had heard 
many times of the truths of our holy religion ; and 
had been entreated again and again, while in com- 
parative health, to lay hold of the hope of ever- 
lasting life set before him in the Gospel ; but he 
rejected every overture of mercy. I visited him 
several times during his illness ; and took with 
me many little comforts, which he had no oppor- 
tunity of procuring. I always found him stretched 
on a bed of fern, under a miserable shed, that 
could not screen him from the scorching rays of 
tlie mid-day sun ; nor from the cold, raw air of 
midnight ; nor yet from wind and rain. Here 
he lay, the picture of despair ; an old tapued wo- 
man at his side, wiping, with a roll of flax, the 
sweat that streamed down his fleshless, tattooed 
