ARRIVAL OF THE DUFF. 
5 
On the 7th of March, 1797, the Missionaries 
went on shore, and were met on the beach by 
the late Pomare and his queen, then called Otoo 
and Tetua; by them they were kindly welcomed, 
as well as by Paitia, an aged chief of the district. 
They were conducted to a large, oval-shaped native 
house, which had been but recently finished for 
Capt. Bligh, whom the natives expected to return. 
This building, the king and chiefs presented to the 
strangers as their dwelling: it was pleasantly 
situated on the western side of the river, near the 
extremity of Point Venus. To reclaim the inha¬ 
bitants from superstition, to impart to them the 
truths of revelation, and to improve their present 
condition, were the objects that had brought them 
to Tahiti. How little such an event had been 
anticipated by Captain Wilson’s predecessors, we 
may learn from the testimony of Captain Cook. 
Speaking of the departure of the Spanish Mis¬ 
sionaries, and the prospect of any future European 
establishment in the islands, he observes, “ It 
is very unlikely that any measure of this kind 
should ever be seriously thought of, as it can 
neither serve the purpose of public ambition, nor 
private avarice; and without such inducements, 
I may pronounce that it will never be under¬ 
taken.”*—The natives were delighted to behold 
foreigners coming to take up their permanent 
residence among them; as those they had here¬ 
tofore seen had been transient visitors, with the 
exception of the Spanish Missionaries and their 
attendants, and a Spaniard, who had saved his life 
by escaping from Langara’s ship, while it was lying 
at anchor offVaiarua, in Taiarabu, in March, 1773; 
at which time three of his shipmates were executed. 
* Cook’s Third Voyage, vol. ii. p. 77, 
