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POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
shipped only the idols of their country, but who now 
desired to acknowledge Jehovah as God alone. 
The noble forbearance and magnanimity of the king and 
chiefs, in the hour of conquest, when under all the intoxi¬ 
cating influence of recent victory and conscious power, 
were no less honourable to the principles which they 
professed, and the best feelings of their hearts, than con¬ 
ducive to the cause of Christianity. This generous tem¬ 
per did not terminate with the command issued on the 
field of contest, but it was a prominent feature in all 
their subsequent conduct. 
When the king despatched a select band to demolish 
the idol temple, he said, Go not to the little island, 
where the women and children have been left for security 5 
turn not aside to the villages or plantations; neither 
enter into the houses, nor destroy any of the property 
you may see 3 but go straight along the high road, 
through all your late enemy’s districts.” His direc¬ 
tions were attended to 5 no individual was injured, no 
fence broken down, no house burned, no article of pro¬ 
perty taken. The bodies of the slain were not wantonly 
mangled, nor left exposed to the elements, or to be 
devoured by the wild dogs from the mountains, and the 
swine that formerly would have been allowed to feed upon 
them; but they were all decently buried by the victors, 
and the body of the fallen chief, Upufara, was conveyed 
to his own district, to be interred among the tombs of 
his forefathers. 
Upufara, the late chief of Papara, was an intelli¬ 
gent and interesting man; his death was deeply 
regretted by Tati^ his near relative, and successor in the 
government of the district. His mind had been for a 
long time wavering, and he was, almost to the morning 
