64 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
About this time the Margaret, in which Captain 
Byers and Mr. Turnbull had visited the islands for 
purposes of commerce, was wrecked on a reef 
about 200 miles distant; Mr. Turnbull had re¬ 
mained in Tahiti; Captain Byers, hist)fficers, and 
crew, consisting of sixteen individuals, with the 
mate’s wife and child, safely reached that island in 
a long kind of chest, or boat, which they had 
built with the fragments of the wreck. 
Towards the close of the last year, Otu’s bro¬ 
ther Teariinavahoroa, the young prince of Tairabu, 
removed from the smaller peninsula in conse¬ 
quence of the increase of his disorder, which 
appeared to be consumption. Pomare, his mother, 
Idia, his brother and sister, and the chiefs, paid 
him every attention; human sacrifices were offer¬ 
ed ; and both Pomare and Otu frequently invoked 
their gods in his favour, and presented the most 
costly offerings. For a number of days no fires 
were allowed to be lighted, in order that these 
might be effectual: but all were unavailing; the 
young chief, who had scarcely arrived at the age 
of manhood, died in the district of Pare on the 
19th of June, 1803. The Missionaries frequently 
visited him after his arrival in Pare, and, as far as 
their scanty means would allow, administered 
cordials suited to his languid state. They were, 
however, most anxious to direct his mind to the 
great Physician of souls, and to lead him to apply 
for those remedies that would heal his spiritual 
maladies, and prepare him for his approaching 
dissolution. On this subject, they noticed with 
distress not only the unwillingness of his friends 
that any thing should be said, but also the insen¬ 
sibility of the young chieftain himself. It was 
supposed by the people, that his illness and death 
