122 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, 
The state of the people was at this time most affecting. 
Diseases^ introduced by Europeans, were spreading, un¬ 
mitigated, their destructive ravages, and some members of 
almost every family were languishing under the influence 
of foreign maladies, or dying in the midst of their days. 
The survivors, jealous of the Missionaries, viewed them 
as the murderers of their countrymen, under the supposi¬ 
tion that these multiplied evils were brought upon them 
by the influence of the Missionaries with their God. 
They did not scruple to tell them that He was killing the 
people; but that by and by, when Oro gained the ascen¬ 
dency, they should feel the effects of his vengeance. In 
addition to the diseases resulting from their immorality, 
there were others of a contagious and often fatal 
character, to which the natives were formerly strangers. 
These had been conveyed to the islands either by the 
visits of ships, or the desertion of seamen afflicted with 
them; they produced the most distressing sickness and 
mortality among the people; and, although nothing could 
be more absurdly imagined, yet, according to their ideas 
of the causes of disease and death, that they originated 
in the displeasure of some offended deity, or were in¬ 
flicted in answer to the prayers of some malignant 
enemy, they were, from the representations of some, and 
the conjectures of others, led to suppose that these dis¬ 
eases were sent by the God of the Missionaries, in 
answer to their prayers, and because they would not 
reject Oro, and join in their worship. 
At this time an event transpired, which threatened at 
first a revival of all the confusion and desolation of war. 
This was the demise of Pomare, the father of Otu the 
king. His death was sudden; he had taken his dinner, 
and was proceeding with two of his attendants in a 
