POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
425 
This change^ although approved and effected by the 
principal chiefs on the islands^ in conjunction with 
the messenger of the king, was nevertheless opposed. 
Several chiefs, of inferior influence, collecting their depen¬ 
dents, encamped on the borders of the lake near Maeva, 
and threatened to avenge the insult to the gods, by at¬ 
tacking the chiefs who had sanctioned their destruction. 
Both parties, however, after assuming a hostile attitude 
for some time, adjusted their differences, and returned 
in peace to their respective districts, mutually agree¬ 
ing to embrace Christianity, and wait the arrival of 
the Missionaries, whose residence among them they 
had been led to expect. In this state we found them 
when we landed ; they had, with the exception of one 
or two individuals, forsaken idolatry, and, in profession 
at least, had become Christians; probably without 
understanding the nature of Christianity, or feel¬ 
ing in any great degree its moral restraints or its 
sacred influence. A few, including two or three who 
had been to Eimeo, had acquired the elements of reading, 
or had learned to repeat the lessons in the spelling- 
book, more from memory than acquaintance with 
spelling and reading; the rest were nearly in the same 
state in which they were when visited in 1808 and 
1809, excepting that their superstitious ceremonies 
were discontinued, and they had a building for the wor¬ 
ship of the true God. 
For a number of Sabbaths after our arrival, but few of 
the inhabitants assembled for public worship, and the 
schools were very thinly attended. Those who came 
were so little acquainted with the gospel, that in the 
lessons given in the school, and the addresses delivered 
to assemblies met for worship, it was found necessary to 
3 I 
