OFFERINGS TO ORO. 
51 
destroy them if they did : others remarked, that 
the Duff came last among the ships, but that, if 
the gospel had been conveyed by the first ship, 
the gods of feathers, as they denominated their 
idols, would long ago have been destroyed : and 
one of the principal chiefs, at whose residence they 
spent the night, observed to the natives around, 
that he believed the Missionaries possessed the true 
foundation of knowledge. 
On their return home, they travelled through 
the district of Atehuru, and found the king, 
Pomare, and all the chiefs and warriors of the 
land, assembled at the great marae, where a 
number of ceremonies were performing in honour 
of Oro, the great national idol. As they passed 
the marae, they saw a number of hogs on the 
altar, and several human sacrifices placed in the 
trees around; and when they reached the spot 
where the chiefs were assembled, they found 
Pomare offering five or six large pigs to Oro, on 
board a sacred canoe, in which the ark, or resi¬ 
dence of the idol, was placed. Notwithstanding 
his being thus engaged, they told him Jehovah 
alone was God, that pigs were not acceptable to 
him as offerings, that Jesus Christ was the true 
atonement for sin, and that God was offended with 
them for killing men. The chief at first seemed 
unwilling to listen, but at last said he would attend 
to their religion. 
On the following day, when the king, chiefs, 
and people, were assembled within the temple, 
Otu and his father, pretending to have received 
intimation that Oro wished to be conveyed to 
Tautira, in Taiarabu, Pomare addressed the chiefs 
of Atehuru, requesting them to give him up ; but 
the orators of the Atehuruan chiefs resisted, 
e 2 
