134 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
decided attachment to the principles of order* 
humanity, and religion, on the other, seemed to 
indicate that matters in Tahiti were fast verging to 
an important issue, and that, before long, some 
violent convulsion in society must follow. The 
Missionaries could not view these things with in¬ 
sensibility, as they saw what they had to expect, 
should they fall into the hands of those who had 
been guilty of such wanton cruelty; their support 
was, however, derived from the conviction, that 
their God was governor among the nations, and 
that the Lord omnipotent reigned. 
In the close of 1814, Pomare-vahine, the daugh 
ter of the king of Raiatea, and the sister of Po- 
mare’s queen, paid a visit to Eimeo, from the 
Leeward Islands, and in the month of May, 1815, 
made a voyage to Tahiti, in company with her 
sister the queen, and a numerous train of compa¬ 
nions and attendants, most of whom professed to 
be Christians. Their object was to make the tou? 
of Tahiti, with the visitor from the Leeward Islands. 
Previously, however, to their embarkation, a signal 
triumph was achieved in favour of Christianity, at 
a public festival, in which they were the most con¬ 
spicuous party. 
It has ever been considered a mark of respect 
due to every distinguished visitor, to prepare, soon 
after the arrival of such an individual, a sumptuous 
feast, termed by the natives a faamuraa, or feed¬ 
ing ; not, however, by furnishing a rieh and 
splendid entertainment at the habitation of the 
proprietors, and inviting as guests the parties in 
honour of whom it was prepared, but by cooking a 
number of whole pigs, fowls, and fish, with a pro¬ 
portionate accompaniment of vegetables, puddings, 
and what may be called their made-dishes, and 
