POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
253 
battle had in some degree subsided^ Pomare and the 
chiefs invited the Christians to assemble, probably in 
the place in which they had been during the morning 
disturbed—there to render thanks to God, for the pro¬ 
tection he had, on that eventful day, so mercifully 
afforded. Their feelings on this occasion must have 
been of no common order. From the peaceful exercise of 
sacred worship, they had been that morning hurried into 
all the confusion and turmoil of murderous conflict with 
enemies, whose numbers, equipment, implacable hatred, 
and superstitious infatuation from the prediction of their 
prophets, had rendered them unusually formidable in 
appearance, and terrible in combat. Defeat and death 
had, as several of them have more than once declared, 
appeared, during several periods of the engagement, 
almost certain ; and, in connexion with the anticipated 
extirpation of the Christian faith in their country, the 
captivity of those who might be allowed to live, the 
momentous realities of eternity, upon which, ere the 
close of the day, it appeared to themselves by no means 
improbable they would enter ; had combined to produce 
a deep agitation, unknown in the ordinary course of 
human affairs, and seldom perhaps experienced, even in 
the field of battle. They now celebrated the subversion 
of idolatry, under circumstances that, but a few hours 
before, had threatened their own extermination, with the 
overthrow of the religion they had espoused, and on 
account of which their destruction had been sought. 
The Lord of hosts had been with them, the God of 
Jacob was their helper, and to him they rendered the 
glory and the praise for the protection he had bestowed, 
and the victory they had obtained. In this sacred act 
they were joined by numbers, who heretofore had wor- 
