254 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
children of such persons they also baptized. In the other 
stations, the Missionaries have administered this rite to 
all whom they had reason to believe sincere in profession 
of discipleship, without requiring evidence of their hav¬ 
ing experienced a decisive spiritual change. In this 
respect some slight difference prevailed, but on every 
other point there has been perfect uniformity in their 
proceedings. 
The first public baptism that occurred in the islands 
took place in the Royal Mission Chapel at Papaoa, in 
Tahiti, on the 16th of July, 1819. Pomare, the king 
of the island, was the individual to whom, in the midst of 
what, but a few years before, had been a scoffing, igno¬ 
rant, obstinate, cruel, and idolatrous nation, that rite was 
administered. It was the Sabbath-day. The congrega¬ 
tion in the chapel, though less numerous than during the 
services of the previous week, amounted to between four 
and five thousand. The subject of discourse was appro¬ 
priate, Matt, xxviii. 18—^20. At the close of the ser¬ 
mons, the Missionaries gathered round the central pulpit; 
the ceremony commenced with singing. Mr. Bicknell, 
one of the Missionaries who had arrived in the Duff, 
implored the Divine blessing, and then, assisted by Mr. 
Henry, the only other senior Missionary at Tahiti, poured 
the water on his head, baptizing him in the name of 
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.'’ The 
venerable Missionary then addressed the king, not with¬ 
out agitation, yet with firmness, “ entreating him to walk 
worthy of his high profession, in the conspicuous station 
he held before angels, men, and God himself." Mr. 
Henry addressed the people, and Mr. Wilson implored 
the Divine benediction, that what had been done on earth 
might be ratified in heaven. 
