204 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
either the New Zealanders, Tahitians, or Marque- 
sians, which are sometimes really beautiful. 
After the service, some of our number visited 
the ruins of a heiau, on a point of lava near our 
lodging. During the evening, on making some 
inquiries respecting it, we found it had been dedi¬ 
cated to Tairi, and was thrown down in the general 
destruction of idols, in 1819. They seemed to 
think it was well that idolatry had been prohibited 
by the king; said its frequent requisitions kept 
them very poor, and occasioned them much 
labour. They were, as might be expected, almost 
entirely ignorant of the religion of Jesus Christ. 
And from what we saw and heard on first arriving 
among them, we should fear they were much de¬ 
graded by immorality and vice. 
One man only from this place had been at 
Oahu, since the king had been favourably disposed 
towards Christianity: while there, he once at¬ 
tended public worship in the native language, 
and heard about Jesus Christ, the God of the 
foreigners ; but had given a very imperfect account 
of him. The people seemed inclined to listen 
attentively to what was said about salvation 
through the Redeemer; and though fatigued by 
our journey, and exercises with the inhabitants of 
the different places where we had stopped during 
the day, we esteemed it a privilege to spend the 
evening in conversation on a topic of so much 
interest and importance, and experienced no small 
degree of pleasure, while endeavouring to convey 
to their uninformed, but apparently inquiring 
minds, a concise and simple view of the leading 
doctrines and duties of our holy religion. At a 
late hour, we asked them to unite with us in our 
