POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
119 
when compared with Oro. Under these circumstances^ 
it required no small degree of forbearance and self- 
possession, as well as patient toil, to persevere in 
preaching the gospel among a people whose spirit and 
conduct afforded so little encouragement to hope it 
would ever be by them received. 
Hitherto their labours had been confined to Tahiti j 
but in December 1802, Mr. Bicknell, accompanied by 
Mr. Wileon, made a voyage to Eimeo, and, travelling 
round it, preached ^^the unsearchable riches of Christ'^ 
to its inhabitants, many of whom appeared to listen with 
earnestness, and desired to be more fully instructed. 
The same year, in the month of November, Teu^ an aged 
and respected chief, the father of Pomare, and the grand¬ 
father of the king, died at his habitation not far from 
the Mission-house. He was remarkably venerable in 
his appearance, being tall and well made, his coun¬ 
tenance open and mild, his forehead high, his hair 
blanched with age, and his beard, as white as silver, 
hanging down upon his breast.* He had led a quiet 
and peaceful life ever since the arrival of the Mission, 
was probably the oldest man in the island, and, what is 
rather unusual, died, apparently from the exhaustion 
of nature, or old age. He was esteemed by the 
natives, and supposed to be a favourite with the gods. 
But whenever the Missionaries had endeavoured to 
pour into his benighted mind the rays of divine light 
and truth, revealed in the sacred volume, it was a cir¬ 
cumstance deeply regretted by them, that he had gene¬ 
rally manifested indifference or insensibility. 
^ In the plate of the Cession of Matavai, he appears standing on the 
right hand of the king, and immediately behind Pomare. 
