WANTON CRUELTY OF ROMARE. 57 
Their situation at this time must have been most 
distressing. Independently of the desolation that 
surrounded them, and the confusion and dis¬ 
quietude that must necessarily have attended their 
being all confined in one house, together with 
the two captains and their seamen, they were 
daily expecting an attack. Sometimes they heard 
that the rebels were entering Matavai from the 
east, at other times from the west, and sometimes 
they received intelligence that they had divided 
their forces, and intended to commence the attack 
from two opposite points at the same time. 
Pomare erected some works on One-tree Hill, 
to arrest their progress, should they attempt the 
district in that direction; and, hearing they were 
still ravaging the peninsula of Tairabu, sent a 
strong party to tabu-te ohua , strike their encamp¬ 
ment at home. His party reached Atehuru, with¬ 
out molestation, late at night; and, after a short 
concealment, falling upon the unconscious and 
defenceless victims, under the cover of the dark¬ 
ness of midnight, in two hours destroyed nearly 
two hundred men, women, and children. The 
men who remained at home, in times of war, were 
generally either aged or sick, and incapable of 
bearing arms. This unprovoked act of cruelty, on 
the part of Pomare, heightened to such a degree 
the rage of the rebels, that they vowed the entire 
destruction of the reigning family. 
While the affairs of the island remained in this 
unsettled state, the Nautilus arrived, and Pomare 
prevailing on the captain to furnish him with a 
boat manned by British seamen armed, went to Ate¬ 
huru to present a costly offering to Oro, whose favour 
he still considered to be the only means of restor¬ 
ing his authority. Although that idol was now in 
