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POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
describe. They have since learned that he was murdered^ 
and some of them have also regretted that after his sepa¬ 
ration^ that kindness and friendly intercourse were not 
continued, which might perhaps, without compromise of 
character, have been consistently maintained. Pomare, 
considering himself the protector of the Missionaries, 
though he did not appear to think he had been murdered, 
yet proposed, if it appeared to the survivors that such 
had been the fact, to destroy the inhabitants of the 
district 5 and so much did many of the latter fear 
such an event, that several fled to the mountains. The 
Missionaries, considering that in such retaliation the 
innocent would suffer with the guilty, interposed, and 
prevailed upon the king to spare the district, but to 
punish the guilty whenever they might be discovered. 
Scarcely were the remains of Mr. Lewis consigned to 
the silent grave, when an event occurred, which again 
reduced the number of this already weakened band. 
The Betsy of London, a letter of marque, arrived with 
a Spanish brig her prize, with which she was proceed¬ 
ing from South America to Port Jackson. The com¬ 
mander of the Betsy having intimated his intention of 
returning in five or six months, Mr, Harris proposed 
to his companions to visit New South Wales; and 
on the 1st of January 18(X), he sailed from Matavai bay, 
intending to return when the ship should revisit the 
islands. By this conveyance, the remaining Missionaries 
wrote an account of their circumstances and their pros¬ 
pects to the directors in London, stating, that although 
they had not acquired a sufficient knowledge of the 
language to enable them publicly to preach the gospel, 
they had observed, whenever they had conversed with the 
natives, that though they could perceive the difference 
