OITO AND TUAHINE. 103 
attracted observation: many derided them, but 
several young men and boys attached themselves 
to Oito and Tuahine, and this little band, without 
any Missionary to teach them, or even before any 
one was acquainted with the circumstance, agreed 
to refrain from worshipping the idols—from the 
evil practices of their country—to observe the Sab- 
bath-day,—and to worship Jehovah alone. They 
had established among themselves a meeting for 
prayer, which they held on the Sabbath, and often 
assembled at other times for social worship. 
This intelligence was like life from the dead to 
the Missionaries; they thanked God, and _ took 
courage; but, before commencing their journey 
round Tahiti, they wrote to their brethren in Eimeo 
an account of what they had seen and heard: de- 
claring all that they had heard was true, that God 
had ‘also granted to the Gentiles repentance unto 
life,’ that some had cast away their idols, and were 
stretching out their hands in prayer to Ged, &c. 
The effect of their letter was scarcely less on the 
minds of the Missionaries in Eimeo, than the re- 
cital had been to themselves in Tahiti. They were 
deeply affected, even unto tears. I have often 
heard Mr. Nott speak, with evident indications of 
strong feeling, of the emotions with which this 
letter was read. And when we consider the long 
and cheerless years, which he and some of his 
associates had spent in fruitless, hopeless toil, on 
that unpromising field, the reasonable prospect of 
an ultimate harvest, which these facts certainly war- 
ranted, was adapted to produce unusual and exalted 
joys, — emphatically a Missionary’s own,—joys 
‘that a stranger intermeddleth not with.” 
Messrs. Scott and Hayward made the tour of 
Tahiti, preaching to the people whenever they 
