184 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
and decisive in its character^ and that the whole of the 
inhabitants were no longer idolaters, but either pro¬ 
fessors of Christianity, or desirous to receive religious 
instruction. 
We had now spent some weeks with the Missionaries 
and people at Papetoai; this had afforded us the means 
of learning from those who had been on the spot, 
many of the particulars connected with this amazing and 
important work. We had also witnessed something of 
its effects in the conversation and deportment of numbers 
who had experienced its moral influence, and evinced 
its benign and elevating power. It was naturally a 
matter of the deepest interest to a Missionary’s mind, 
important in all its bearings on the object nearest to 
his heart, and first in the aims and the purposes of 
his life. 
The accounts given by the Missionaries, on my first 
arrival, and the many interesting facts which subsequently 
came to my knowledge, when I had acquired such an 
acquaintance with the language of the people, as to be 
able to pursue my inquiries among them, have not only 
excited the highest delight, but convinced me, that, in the 
circumstances under which the change occurred, the 
agency by which it was accomplished, and the per¬ 
manency of its effects, it is altogether one of the 
most remarkable displays of Divine power that has 
occurred in the history of mankind, and is, perhaps, 
unparalleled since the days of the apostles. Detached 
notices of this event have been transmitted to Eng¬ 
land in the letters of the Missionaries, and in the 
different publications of the Missionary Society, No 
connected and regular account has, however, yet been 
furnished; and, notwithstanding all that has been 
