POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
193 
king, after his expulsion from the island of his ances¬ 
tors, and accompanied him _on his return to resume his 
former government. He spared no efforts favourably to 
impress them in regard to Christianity) but to no purpose 
for a long time. When he offered himself for baptism, 
he stated that he had endeavoured to persuade Tamatoa, 
his father-in-law, and Tapoa, the king and principal 
chief of Raiatea, to renounce idolatry, and become the 
disciples of Jesus Christ; but they had assured him, 
whatever he might do, they would adhere to Oro. 
Others expressed the same determination; and Pomare 
came forward alone, requesting baptism, and desiring 
to hear and obey the word of God, as he said he de¬ 
sired to be happy after death, and to be saved at the 
day of judgment."^ He did not confine his efforts to 
private conversation, but in public council urged upon 
Tamatoa and Mahine, the chiefs of Raiatea and Hua- 
hine, the adoption of the Christian religion; hereby 
publicly evincing his own determination to adhere to 
the choice he had made. 
The Missionaries had every reason to believe the king 
was sincere in his desires to become a true follower of 
Christ; but as they then deemed only those who were 
true converts to Christianity, proper subjects for the 
Christian rite of baptism, and feared that his mind might 
not be sufficiently informed on the nature and design of 
that ordinance, and that he was rather an earnest inquirer 
after divine truth, than an actual possessor of its moral 
principle and spiritual influence, they proposed to him 
to defer his baptism until he had received more ample 
instruction. They were also desirous to receive addi¬ 
tional evidence of his sincerity, and of the uprightness 
and the purity of his conduct, during a longer period 
2 c 
