PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 115 
whom the Missionaries can repose confidence. 
Although not a chief of the highest rank, he had 
been raised by the king and people to the office of 
a magistrate, in his own district. His conduct on 
the above occasion gave idolatry a stab more 
deadly than any which it had before received, 
and inflicted a wound, from which, with all the 
energy subsequently manifested, it never could 
recover. 
On the 5th of October, 1813, the native Chris¬ 
tians engaged for the first time with their teachers, 
in the monthly meetings for prayer for the spread¬ 
ing of the gospel. On the 2nd of December, in 
the same year, Mui, one of the early scholars, and 
one whose name had been written among the first 
that professed Christianity, departed to the world of 
spirits, under the consolation that pure religion im¬ 
parts in the hour of death. He was often heard to say r 
while confined to his couch, vdien he saw his former 
companions going to the school, or the place of 
worship, “ My feet cannot follow, but my heart 
goes with you.” He did not pretend to know 
much, but he knew that he was a sinner, and that 
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, 
and this knowledge removed from his mind the 
fear of death. 
Early in the same year, the number of pupils, 
and of those who professed Christianity in Eimeo, 
was considerably increased, and favourable in¬ 
telligence continued to arrive from the adjacent 
island. 
The report of the increase of the Christians, and 
their advancement in knowledge, &c. had already 
circulated throughout Tahiti; the minds of many 
were unsettled, and numbers were halting between 
two opinions. Upaparu, a chief of rank and in- 
i 2 
