INFANTICIDE DEPLORED. 329 
which I am spared to see ; my heart is longing 
for them, and often says within me, Oh ! that 
they had not died so soon : great are my crimes ; 
I am the father of nineteen children ; all of them 
I have murdered —now my heart longs for them. 
—Had they been spared, they would have been 
men and women—learning and knowing the word 
of the true God. But while I was thus destroying 
them, no one, not even my own cousin, (pointing 
to Tamatoa the king, who presided at the meet¬ 
ing,) stayed my hand, or said, Spare them. No 
one said, The good word, the true word is coming, 
spare your children ; and now my heart is repent¬ 
ing—is weeping for them !” 
