POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
55 
and a light cloth over their shoulders^ wore large folds of 
white or yellow cloth bound round their heads^ in some 
degree resembling a turban^ which gave them a remark¬ 
ably Asiatic appearance. They also wore necklaces of 
the nuts of the pandanus; the scent of which^ though 
strong, is grateful to most of the islanders of the Pacific. 
A few weeks before our arrival, a canoe from Tahiti, 
bound to the Paumotu or pearl islands, had been drifted 
on Tubuai; and the people on board, although peace¬ 
able in their conduct, had incurred the displeasure of the 
inhabitants by endeavouring to persuade them to renounce 
idolatry and embrace Christianity. The strangers, though 
plundered and otherwise ill-treated, forbore to retaliate^ 
from the influence of Christian principles which they 
had imbibed at Tahiti. 
Subsequently, the Tubuaians heard more ample details 
of the change that had taken place in the adjacent island 
of Rurutu, as well as in the Society Islands—^that the 
inhabitants had renounced their idolatry, and erected 
places for the worship of the true God—and determined 
to follow their example. In the month of March, 1822, 
they sent a deputation to Tahiti, requesting teachers and 
books. The messengers from Tubuai were kindly wel¬ 
comed, and not only hospitably entertained by the Tahi¬ 
tian Christians, but led to their schools and their places 
of public worship. Two native teachers were selected 
by the church in Matavai, and publicly designated by the 
Missionaries to instruct the natives of Tubuai. The 
churches in Tahiti, so far as their means admitted, 
furnished them with a supply of articles most likely 
to be useful in their missionary station ; and the 13th 
of June, 1822, they embarked for the island of Tubuai. 
Mr. Nott the senior Missionary in Tahiti, embarked in 
