POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
191 
very cheering prospects under which they were at this 
time called upon to pursue their Missionary engage¬ 
ments^ greatly alleviated their sorrow. 
They had established public worship; Mr. Davies had 
opened a school; an increased and pleasing attention had 
been manifested^ by several_j to the instructions com¬ 
municated ; and only ten days before the death of Mrs. 
Henry, Pomare, the king of Tahiti, publicly professed his 
belief in Jehovah the true God, and his determination to 
serve him. He also requested to be baptized, and to 
become one of the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
assuring the Missionaries that his resolution to give him¬ 
self up to God, was the result of long and increasing con¬ 
viction of the truth and superiority of the religion of 
the Bible, expressing at the same time his desire to 
be more fully instructed in the matters to which it 
referred. 
Pomare had for some time past shewn his contempt 
for the idols of his ancestors, and his desire to be 
taught a more excellent way, that he might obtain the 
favour of the true God. The natives had watched the 
change in his mind with the most fearful appre¬ 
hension, as to its results upon the minds of his sub¬ 
jects. They were powerfully affected on one occasion 
when a present was brought him of a turtle^ which was 
always held sacred, and dressed with sacred fire within 
the precincts of the temple, part of it being invariably 
offered to the idol. The attendants were proceeding 
with the turtle to the Marae, when Pomare called them 
back, and told them to prepare an oven, to bake it 
in his own kitchen, and serve it up, without offering it 
to the idol. The people around were astonished, and 
could hardly believe the king was in a state of sanity, 
