POLYNESIAN > RESEARCHES, 
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single canoe towards the Dart^ a vessel on the point of 
sailing from the bay. While advancing towards the ship, 
he felt a pain in his back, which occasioned him involun¬ 
tarily to start in his seat; and, placing his hand on the 
part affected, he fell forward in the canoe, and instantly 
expired. The suddenness and circumstances of his death, 
taken in connexion with the troubles in which he had 
recently been engaged with the greater part of the people 
of the island, on account of his violent seizure of the idol 
at Atehuru, strengthened in no small degree the idola¬ 
trous veneration with which the natives regarded their 
god ^ and the anger of Oro was by them supposed to be 
the direct cause of Pomare’s death. 
In person, Poiiiare, like most of the chiefs of the 
South Sea Islands, was tall and stout | in stature he was 
six feet four inches high, his limbs active and well pro¬ 
portioned, his whole form and gait imposing. He was often 
seen by the Missionaries walking along with firm steady 
steps, and using with ease as a walking-stick a club of 
polished iron-wood, that would have been almost a bur¬ 
den for an ordinary native to have carried. His coun¬ 
tenance was open and prepossessing, bis conversation 
affable, though his manner was grave and dignified. He 
was originally only a chief of the district of Pare, but 
his natural enterprise and ambition, together with the 
attention shewn him by the commanders of British ves¬ 
sels, their presents of fire-arms and ammunition, and the 
aid of European seamen, especially the mutineers of the 
Bounty, had enabled him to assume and maintain the 
supreme authority in Tahiti. Though not possessed of 
the greatest personal courage, he was a good politician, 
and a man of unusual activity and perseverance. He 
laboured diligently to multiply the resources of the island, 
