DISSOLUTION OF THE AREOIS society. 169 
Mahine sent a special message to Huahine, and 
the same change took place in ‘that island ; which 
was perhaps, for its size and population, more at- 
tached to its idols than any other. Idol-worship, 
with all its attendant cruelty and moral degrada- 
tion, was discontinued. The temples were de- 
molished, and the gods committed to the flames. 
Thus, in one year, the system of false worship, 
which had, from the earliest antiquity of its po- - 
pulation, prevailed in these islands, was happily 
abolished—it is hoped, to be revived no more. 
in the course of the following year, the loss sus- 
tained by the death of Mr. Scott was repaired by 
the arrival of Mr. Crook from New South Wales: 
he reached the islands in the month of May, and 
rendered important service in the prosecution of 
the common enterprise. 
During the same year, the profession of Chris- 
tianity became general throughout the whole of the 
Society Islands. By universal consent the infa- 
mous Areoi society was destroyed at the same time. 
Its own members appear to have made no efforts 
to preserve, and no class of the community even 
solicited, its continuance. The entire dissolution 
of this association, and the abolition of its cruel 
and abominable practices, on the introduction of 
Christianity, is one of the most powerful demon- 
strations God has given to his church and to the 
world, of the irresistible operation of those means 
which he has appointed for the complete demoli- 
tion of the very strong holds of paganism, and the 
universal extension of virtue and of happiness 
among the most profligate and debased of man- 
kind. It is a matter of devout acknowledgment 
to the Almighty, by whose power alone the means 
employed have been rendered efficacious in its 
