114 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
base propensities, and live in the luxurious ease 
they then enjoyed. Had any popular tumult fol¬ 
lowed this heroic act, the idolaters were so numer¬ 
ous and powerful, and the Christians so weak, 
that their destruction would have been inevitable ; 
and even the lives of the Missionaries, who would 
have been considered as the cause of all the dis¬ 
turbances, might not have been secure. God, 
however, preserved them, and they returned, to 
render to him the thanks and the glory due unto 
his name. 
The conduct of Patii, when it became more 
extensively known, produced the most decisive 
effects on priests and people. Numbers in Tahiti 
and Eimeo were emboldened, by his example— 
not only in burning their idols, but demolishing 
their maraes or temples ; their altars were also 
stripped and overthrown, and the wood employed 
in their construction converted into fuel, and used 
in the native kitchens. 
Patii became a pupil of the Missionaries, and 
a constant worshipper of the true God, persevering 
amidst much ridicule and persecution. Whether 
his mind had at this time undergone a divine and 
decisive change, it is not necessary now to inquire; 
every evidence that could be required, has since 
been given, of the sincerity of his profession of 
Christianity, and the influence of its principles on 
his heart. His conduct, from this period, has 
been uniformly moral and upright, his mind 
humble, his disposition affectionate and mild, and 
his habits of life reformed and industrious. The 
influence of his character in Papetoai, where he is 
best known, has occasioned his election to an im¬ 
portant office in the Christian church. He is a 
valuable and steady friend, and an assistant, in 
