JEHOVAH ACKNOWLEDGED. 135 
carrying the whole to the encampment of the visi¬ 
tor, with a considerable addition of the choicest 
fruits the season may afford. 
An expensive and sumptuous entertainment of 
this kind was furnished by the chiefs of Eimeo for 
the queen's sister. A large quantity of every 
valuable kind of food was dressed and presented, 
together with several bundles of native cloth. On 
such occasions, it was customary for a priest or 
priests to attend ; and before any of it was eaten, 
to offer the whole to the gods, by taking parts of 
the animals, and particular kinds of the fruit, to the 
temple, and depositing them upon the altar. The 
king and his friends were desirous on this occasion 
to prevent such an acknowledgment. When, 
therefore, the food was presented to Pomare- 
vahine, before any article was touched by the 
attendants, and while the spectators were expect¬ 
ing the priests to select the customary offerings to 
the idols, one of her principal men, who was a 
Christian, came forward, uncovered his head, and, 
looking up to heaven, offered in an audible voice 
their acknowledgments and thanksgivings to Jeho¬ 
vah, who liberally gave them food and raiment and 
every earthly blessing. The assembled multitude 
were confounded and astonished; and the food 
being, by this act, offered as they considered to 
Jehovah, no one dared to take any part of it to the 
idol temple. 
When the party reached Tahiti, they landed in 
Pare, the hereditary dictrict of Pomare's family, 
where they were welcomed by the friends of the 
king, and the guardian of Aimata , his only child, 
who with her nurse resided here. 
From the few Christians in the neighbourhood, 
they were happy to learn that the inhabitants of 
