DEATH OF TH £ QUEEN, 
73 
were supposed to be the results of a cruel and 
unnatural practice, that cannot be described— 
a species of infanticide, often resorted to by 
females of high rank in the island, although not 
unfrequently issuing, as was imagined on the 
present occasion, in the death of the perpetrator. 
Pomare had offered his prayers to the gods of 
his family, and many ceremonies had been per¬ 
formed, but to no purpose. The queen was in 
person about the middle stature ; mild and affable 
in her behaviour ; addicted to all the vices of her 
country; and was cut off in the prime of life, 
being about twenty-four years of age at the time 
of her death. The king and his mother appeared 
affected with their loss; and the grief of his relatives 
was severe, as the death of so many members of 
Pomare’s family threatened, at no very remote 
period, its total extinction. Pomare was left a 
widower and childless, all the children of the late 
queen having been destroyed. 
Although reports of war were heard during the 
year, there was no actual hostility ; and, under dis¬ 
couragements every day increasing, the Mission¬ 
aries were enabled to prosecute their labours. 
Having found it difficult to engage the attention 
of the children, while attempting to teach them in 
the presence of the adults, who ridiculed the idea 
of their learning letters, they opened a school in 
a part of their own dwelling. In October, Mr. 
Davies proposed to begin with the boys attached to 
their own houses, and met them three nights in 
the week for the purpose of instructing them in the 
catechism, and teaching them to read those few 
specimens of writing they had been able to pre¬ 
pare. At the same time, Messrs. Nott and Davies 
were requested to draw up a brief summary of the 
