PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS. 123 
dred scholars attended the means of instruction in 
Eimeo ; besides which, there were a number in Sir 
Charles Sander’s Island, Huahine, and Raiatea; 
so that, at this time there is reason to believe that 
between five and six hundred had renounced idol- 
worship. 
These encouraging appearances, in regard to the 
affairs of the Christians, only appeared to arouse 
the anger of their idolatrous enemies, who were no 
longer satisfied with simply ridiculing, and treating 
with contempt, the objects of their hatred, but pro¬ 
ceeded to more alarming plans of resistance against 
the progress of the new principles which were 
daily gaining ground among the people. It was 
by no means an uncontested triumph, nor an un¬ 
disputed possession, that Christianity acquired in 
those islands ; every inch was reluctantly surren¬ 
dered ; and, at several periods, persecution raged, 
amid the Elysian bowers of Tahiti and Eimeo, as 
much as ever it had done in the valleys of Pied¬ 
mont, or the metropolis of the Roman empire. 
Many, in Tahiti especially, were plundered of their 
property, banished from their homes and their pos¬ 
sessions ; their houses were burnt, and they them¬ 
selves hunted for sacrifices to be offered to Oro, 
merely because they were Bure Atua, prayers to 
God. In some places, the persecutions were so 
inveterate as to produce remonstrances, even from 
several of the inferior chiefs, who were themselves 
idolaters. 
The commencement of the year 1815 is dis¬ 
tinguished, in the annals of Tahiti, by changes in 
society, affecting deeply, not only the religious, 
but the domestic condition of the people, especially 
of the females. Idolatry had exerted all its wither¬ 
ing and deadly influence, not only over every 
