BAPTISM OF POMARE. 19 
- eruel, and idolatrous nation, that rite was admi- 
nistered. It was the Sabbath-day. The con- 
gregation in the chapel, though less numerous 
than during the services of the previous week, 
amounted to between four and five thousand. The 
_ subject of discourse was appropriate, Matt. xxvii. 
~18—20. Atthe close of the sermons, the Mis- 
sionaries gathered round the central pulpit; the 
ceremony commenced with singing. Mr. Bicknell, 
‘one of the Missionaries who had arrived in the 
Duff, implored the Divine blessing, and then, 
assisted by Mr. Henry, the only other senior Mis- 
sionary at Tahiti, poured the water on his head, 
baptizing him ‘in the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” The venerable 
Missionary then addressed the king, not without 
agitation, yet with firmness, ‘ entreating him to 
walk worthy of his high profession, in the con-— 
- spicuous station he held before angels, men, and 
God himself.” Mr. Henry addressed the people, 
and Mr. Wiison implored the Divine benediction, 
that what had been done on earth might be ratified 
in heaven. | 
Although the subsequent conduct of Pomare 
was a matter of the deepest regret to his best 
friends, yet there was something in the ceremony 
unusual.y imposing; and the emotions associated 
with it must have been intense and interesting, 
especially to the two elder Missionaries, who had 
performed the rite. He had been identified with 
the chief events of their lives; upwards of two 
and twenty years had rolled by since the provi- 
dence of God first brought them acquainted with 
him on the shores of Matavai; and in connexion 
with that interview, which memory would, pro- 
bably, present in strong and vivid colours on this 
C2 
