196 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
months at anchor here in 1788 and 1789; when 
Captain Vancouver arrived in 1792 ; Captain New, 
of the Daedalus, in 1793 ; and Captain Wilson, in 
the Duff, who anchored in the same bay on the 
6th of March, 1797. 
It was on the northern shores of this bay, that 
eighteen of the Missionaries, who left England in 
the Duff, first landed, upwards of thirty years 
ago. 
And, although the scene before me was now one 
of loveliness and quietude, cheerful, yet placid as 
the smooth waters of the bay, that scarcely rippled 
by the vessel’s side, it has often worn a very 
different aspect. Here the first Missionaries fre¬ 
quently heard the song accompanying the licen¬ 
tious Areois dance, the deafening noise of idol 
worship, and saw the human victim carried by for 
sacrifice : here, too, they often heard the startling 
cry of war, and saw their frighted neighbours fly 
before the murderous spear and plundering hand 
of lawless power. The invaders’ torch reduced 
the native hut to ashes, while the lurid flame 
seared the green foliage of the trees, and clouds 
of smoke, rising up among their groves, darkened 
for a time surrounding objects. On such occa¬ 
sions, and they were not infrequent, the contrast 
between the country and the inhabitants must 
have been most affecting, appearing as if the 
demons of darkness had lighted up infernal fires, 
even in the bowers of paradise. 
Most of the islanders who had boarded us in the 
morning continued in the ship, others arrived as 
we approached the bay; and long before we an¬ 
chored, our decks were crowded with natives. Our 
prepossessions in their favour continued to in¬ 
crease, and we viewed them with no ordinary 
