306 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
moved from the means of instruction, the example and 
influence of the principal chiefs, and more enlightened 
part of the population; and it appears matter of sur¬ 
prise, that in the course of three years only, so many 
should have relinquished their superstitious notions 
respecting the deities of the volcanoes, when we consi¬ 
der their ignorance, and their early impressions, and 
recollect that while resting at night, perhaps on a bed 
of lava, they are occasionally startled from their mid¬ 
night slumbers by the undulating earthquake, and are 
daily reminded of the dreadful power of this imaginary 
goddess “by almost every object that meets their view, 
from the cliffs which are washed by the waves of the 
sea, even to the lofty craters, her ancient seat above 
the clouds, and amid perpetual snows/' 
Until this morning, however, none of the servants of 
P£le had ever publicly opposed her pretended right to 
that homage and obedience which it was our object to 
persuade and invite them to render to Jehovah alone ; 
and though it was encouraging to notice, that, by many 
of the people present, the pretensions of Oani were 
disregarded, it was exceedingly painful to hear an 
idolatrous priestess declaring that the conduct of those, 
by whom they had been sometimes visited from coun¬ 
tries called Christian, had been productive of conse¬ 
quences more injurious and fatal to the unsuspecting 
and unenlightened Hawaiians, than these dreadful phe¬ 
nomena in nature, which they had been accustomed to 
attribute to the most destructive of their imaginary 
deities, and to know also that such a declaration was 
too true to be contradicted. 
A number of people, after they left the place of pub¬ 
lic worship, came to our house, and conversed on the 
