POMARE’S CONTEMPT OF THE GODS. 93 
instructions communicated; and only ten days 
before the death of Mrs. Henry, Pomare, the king 
of Tahiti, publicly professed his belief in Jehovah 
the true God, and his determination to serve him. 
He also requested to be baptized, and to become 
one of the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, as- 
suring the Missionaries that his resolution to give 
himself up to God, was the result of long and in- 
creasing conviction of the truth and superiority of 
the religion of the Bible, expressing at the same 
time his desire to be more fully instructed in the 
matters to which it referred. 
Pomare had for some time past shewn his con- 
tempt for the idols of his ancestors, and his desire 
to be taught a more excellent way, that he might 
obtain the favour of the true God. The natives 
had watched the change in his mind with the most 
fearful apprehension, as to its results upon the 
minds of his subjects. They were powerfully af- 
fected on one occasion when a present was brought 
him of a turtle, which had always been held sacred, 
and dressed with sacred fire within the precincts of 
the temple, part of it being invariably offered to the 
idol. The attendants were proceeding with the 
turtle to the marae, when Pomare called them 
back, and told them to prepare an oven, to bake it 
in his own kitchen, and serve it up, without. offering 
it to the idol. The people around were astonished, 
and could hardly believe the king was in a state of 
sanity, or was really in earnest. ‘The king repeated 
his direction; a fire was made, the turtle baked, 
and served up at the next repast. The people of 
the king’s household stood, in mute expectation of 
some fearful visitation of the god’s anger, as soon 
as he should touch a morsel of the fish; by 
which he had, in this instance, committed, as they 
