m 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
riericed a heavy loss, in the destruction of a large and 
flourishing plantation. 
- Three of the Missionaries had cleared, enclosed, 
and cultivated it 5 and had rendered it, as far as the pro¬ 
ductions of the island were available, subservient to their 
interests. They had stocked it with cocoa-nuts, oranges, 
limes, and citrons, of which, not fewer than six hundred 
plants, with other productions, were growing remarkably 
well. In one hour, however, the whole of the fence 
was burnt to the ground, and the plantation destroyed, 
of the few plants that remained were so much injured 
as to be nearly useless. Great as was the loss ex¬ 
perienced on this occasion, they had reason to fear it 
was caused by some of their neighbours, who had 
designedly set fire to the long dry grass immediately 
to windward of the plantation. This was probably 
done from motives of jealousy, lest, by cultivating 
the land, and reaping the fruits of it, the Missionaries 
should suppose it had become theirs, and the natives 
cease to be its proprietors. On this acount, much as 
they suffered by its destruction, they deemed it inex¬ 
pedient to complain to the king. 
In the month of January, 1806, Pomare returned from 
Eimeo, bringing with him the idol Oro, which was kept 
in his sacred canoe | while the human sacrifices, offered 
on his arrival, were suspended on the trees around. The 
Missionaries paid a visit to the king, soon after his 
return; and, as he had become remarkably fond of using 
his pen, he intimated his wish that they should build 
him a small plastered house, near their own, in which 
he could attend to his writing without the interruptions 
he experienced in his own dwelling. 
Early in the year 1806, the Mission was again 
