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POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
ing him to adhere to the religion of his fatherSj, 
and to beware of Matupuupuu, a man of influence, an 
areoi, and a high-priest, from Huahine, who had recently 
joined the Christian converts, and Utami, a well- 
informed and enterprising man, chief in the island of 
Tahaa, who, with his wife, had also attached himself 
to their number. 
Fifty had now given in their names, as having 
renounced idolatry, desiring to acknowledge Jehovah 
alone as the true God, and to be instructed in the 
obedience his word required. Others attended in such 
numbers, that it was found necessary to enlarge the 
first place of worship they had ever used in the islands. 
The converts were punctual and regular in their ob¬ 
servance of the outward ordinances of religion, in 
frequent social meetings for prayer, and seasons 
of retirement for private devotion. Their whole 
moral conduct seemed changed; the things they once 
delighted in, they now abhorred, and found enjoyment 
in what had formerly been a source of ridicule or 
aversion. Their habit of invariably asking a blessing, 
and returning thanks after meals, and their frequent 
attention to prayer, attracted the notice of their coun¬ 
trymen, and procured for them, as a term of reproach from 
their enemies, the designation of Bure Atua, literally 
Prayers to God; from Bure, to pray, and Atua, God; the 
meaning of which was, the people who prayed to God, 
or the praying people. Bure Atua is a designation in 
no respect dishonourable to those to whom it was ap¬ 
plied, and of which they have never been ashamed, 
though considered as an epithet of contempt or oppro¬ 
brium, and applied in a manner similar to that in which 
the term Saint or Methodist is’used in the present day. 
