RURUTU. 397 
were intelligent, active, and devoted Christians, 
and their wives pious and amiable women. 
On the 5th of July, 1821, they embarked with 
the chief and his friends, and, three days after 
leaving Raiatea, the ship made Rurutu. The next 
day Auura and the Raiateans entered a boat, and 
rowed towards the land. When they approached 
the shore, the boat’s crew were rather alarmed 
by the eagerness with which the people waded 
into the sea to meet them ; but, being assured that 
it was only indicative of a desire to bid them wel¬ 
come, they resumed their confidence. They were 
startled at being saluted by the inhabitants in the 
name of “ Jehovah, the true God of whom they 
afterwards found the natives had heard, by means 
of a woman who had left Raiatea four or five years 
before, and had, by a ship, reached the southern 
islands. 
As soon as they landed, Mahamene and Puna 
kneeled on the ground, and rendered thanks unto 
God for their preservation. They were not aware 
that the spot on which they made this acknow¬ 
ledgment was sacred to Oro, and could not account 
for the earnestness with which the Rurutuans 
exclaimed, “ This party will die.” The strangers 
also inadvertently cooked and ate their food in a 
place that was considered as sacred : this, with the 
circumstance of the females eating with the men, 
filled the natives with greater astonishment, and 
they waited for some time, expecting to see them 
suddenly expire. At length they concluded that 
the gods would execute vengeance upon them 
during the night; and, so great was their anxiety 
on this subject, that they could not wait till daybreak 
—one of them went at midnight to the chiefs 
house, and, calling aloud, inquired if his wife was 
