72 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
burnt to the ground, and the plantation destroyed, 
or the few plants that remained were so much 
injured as to be nearly useless. Great as was the 
loss experienced on this occasion, they had reason 
to fear it was caused by some of their neighbours, 
who had designedly set fire to the long dry grass 
immediately to windward of the plantation. This 
was probably done from motives of jealousy, lest, 
by cultivating the land, and reaping the fruits of 
it, the foreigners should suppose it had become 
theirs, and the natives cease to be its proprietors. 
On this account, much as they suffered by its de¬ 
struction, they deemed it inexpedient to complain 
to the king. 
In the month of January, 1806, Pomare 
returned from Eimeo, bringing with him the idol 
Oro, which was kept in his sacred canoe; while 
the human sacrifices, offered on his arrival, were 
suspended on the trees around. The Missionaries 
paid a visit to the king, soon after his return; 
and, as he had become remarkably fond of using 
his pen, he intimated his wish that they should 
build him a small plastered house, near their own, 
in which he could attend to his writing without 
the interruptions he experienced in his own 
dwelling. 
Early in the year 1806, the Mission was again 
weakened by the departure of Mr. Shelly, with 
his family. He relinquished Missionary pursuits, 
and sailed for Port Jackson on the ninth of March. 
In the month of July, following, the queen of 
Tahiti died, in the district of Pare, after an illness 
of nearly eight weeks. About the time that her 
indisposition commenced, she had become the 
mother of a still-born child ; the sickness that fol¬ 
lowed, and the fatal termination to which it led. 
