240 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
a fierce combat ensued. P616 was forced to her vol¬ 
cano, and threatened with destruction from the waters 
of the sea, which Tamapuaa poured into the crater till 
it was almost full, and the fires were nearly extinct. 
Pēlē and her companions drank up the waters, rose 
again from the craters, and finally succeeded in driving 
Tamapuaa into the sea, whither she followed him with 
thunder, lightning, and showers of large stones. ' 
They also related the account of the destruction of 
part of Keoua’s camp by a violent eruption of the vol¬ 
cano, which, from their description, must have been 
sudden and awful. 
P£le, they said, was propitious to Tamehameha, and 
availed herself of the opportunity afforded by the con¬ 
tiguous encampment of Keoua to diminish his forces 
and aid the cause of his rival. We asked why Keoua 
was unpopular with Pel6. They said, “ We do not 
exactly know. Some say, he had not sent sufficient 
offerings to the heiaus ; others, that he had no right to 
make war against Tamehameha, as he had before con¬ 
cluded a treaty of peace with him; and others, that he 
had broken the tabu of the place bjr eating the ohelos, 
marking and disturbing the sand,'or pulling up a sa¬ 
cred kind of grass growing in the neighbourhood.” 
Whatever was the cause, P616, they said, w r as “ huJiu 
roa,” exceedingly angry, and, soon after sun-set, re¬ 
peatedly shook the earth with the most violent heaving 
motion, sent up a column of dense black smoke, follow¬ 
ed by the most brilliant flames. A violent percussion 
was afterwards felt, streams of bright red lava were 
spouted up, and immense rocks in a state of ignition 
thrown to a great height in the air. A volley of smaller 
stones, thrown with much greater velocity and force. 
