ANECDOTES. 223 CHAPTER XXXIII. The Deputation take a final Leave of Tahiti, and proceed by Eimeo for New South Wales, touching at Huahine, Tahaa, and Raiatea-Anecdotes, and a remarkable native Prophecy-Tides in the Pacific Ocean -An odd Incident in Fishing-A perilous Adventure-BoraboraSummary of Observations on the State of the Missions in the South Sea Islands, by the Deputation. April 24. THIS day we took our final leave of Tahiti, and arrived in the evening at Papetoai, in Eimeo. May 8. After a brief sojourn with our friends here, to wind up some concerns respecting the stations, the cottonworks, and the seminary for the education of the children of missionaries, and other European agents of the Parent Society, in the various Christianized islands, of both the windward and the leeward group, we went on board of the Endeavor schooner, to commence our voyage to New South Wales. We cannot express the pain which we felt at this parting; duty, however, calls, and we are going forth, not knowing what may befall us in the providence of God, but willingly and thankfully leaving the future in his hands, who has guided and protected, blessed and helped us thus far. Mr. Threlkeld, who has lately lost his excellent wife, accompanies us to the colony. May 10. We went on shore at Fare Harbor, Huahine, to bid farewell to our brethren and sisters there. When we landed, a trial was holding on a charge of infanticide, by abortion, against a widow, who had unhappily abandoned herself to a loose life. Though acquitted, from a defect in evidence, the culprit afterwards confessed her guilt, and pointed out the place a land-crab's hole-in which she had deposited her untimely birth, wrapped in a piece of cloth. On examination the cloth was found, but the body had disappeared, having been devoured by the crabs. Circumstances of this atrocious nature were too common, under the idolatrous system, to excite attention, but now this crime filled every bosom with horror, and even the tranquillity of the island seemed to have been distressingly interrupted by its occurrence. Indeed the diminution of the human species by infant-murder was lately so notorious that a prophecy was remembered, and, to some extent, believed, among the island. ers, which must have been fulfilled, at no very distant period, had not Christianity come to rescue the whole race from destruction: "Etupu fiau, etoro te farero, Eore te taata.""The fiau-trees shall overspread the land, and the branching corals fill the deep; but extinct shall be the race of man." There is a dark and terrible sublimity in this prediction, rarely to be met with, either in the eloquence or the poetry of a barbarous people, figurative as these almost necessarily are; the earth covered with forests; the sea choked up with coral-rocks; and not a human inhabitant!—here is as perfect and appalling a picture of magnificent loneliness as imagination ever bodied forth. Another frightful instance of depravity lately occurred here. An old man, who still adheres to heathenism, worships a human skull as his divinity, and sometimes eats his food out of it. This wretch lately coveted a fish-pond, in a piece of land occupied by a youth who was a relation of his. The boy refused to part with it, at which the other was exceedingly angry; but choosing to conceal his chagrin, to make more sure of the objects both of his vengeance and his cupidity, he pretended such friendliness towards the unsuspecting lad that the latter presented him with some fish. This the villain accepted graciously, took it home, baked it, and sent a portion back, with fair speeches accompanying the perfidious gift for the mess was poisoned. The boy ate, was seized with sickness, and soon died in excruciating torments. It is affirmed, and believed, that this was the thirteenth of the same family, his own kindred, who have, at different times, fallen victims to the arts of the same assassin. To the credit of the rest of the population of Huahine it ought to be mentioned that he is the only surviving idolater in the island. When it is remembered that such as the woman above mentioned, the destroyer of her own offspring, and the hoary-headed sinner now noticed, the murderer of his relatives, were the multitude of the people of these lands a few years ago, none but the enemies of man, both in this world and the next, can despise or hate what the gospel has done for them. May 25. We sailed from Huahine to Tahaa, and on the following day reached Raiatea. May 27. We have made arrangements to enable the brethren on the leeward stations to visit, once a year, the various islands to which the gospel has been sent by native teachers, ODD ACCIDENT IN FISHING. 225 and where it is yet impracticable to establish European missionaries. May 28. The sea, from some unknown cause, rising here and overflowing the low lands several times a year, whereby the dwellings and grounds at Vamara are frequently much damaged, the inhabitants have determined to remove to a more secure situation-a fertile tract, along a winding coast, nearly three miles in extent. There they have already reared a plastered house for Mr. Williams, and are proceeding with buildings and inclosures for themselves. There are no rivulets in the immediate neighborhood, but a sufficient number of springs, which promise to supply the population with abundance of good water. It is generally known, but may be repeated here, in connection with the aforementioned periodical, but irregular, inundations of the sea, that the tides throughout the Pacific Ocean do not appear to obey the influence of the moon in the slightest degree. It is always high water about twelve, and low about six o'clock, day and night. An odd accident lately endangered the life of a native in a very unexpected manner. A party went out on a fishing cruise about the small islands adjacent to Tahaa, round which great draughts are often taken of the frys that haunt the shores of the coral motus. In the evening, according to custom, they had assembled for family worship upon the beach, close to deep water. The person whose office it was to read the Scriptures and engage in prayer had left his line afloat, after fastening it round one of his legs. In the midst of his exercises, a large fish seized the baited hook, and, feeling itself entangled, plunged so desperately that the poor man was dragged by the sudden jerk into the sea, where he must inevitably have perished, from the impossibility of disengaging himself, and the strength of the creature, darting downward with headlong precipitation, had not his compan ions instantly rushed to his relief, and laid hold of him before he was engulfed. Many remarkable perils and deliverances occur in these seas, when navigated by such frail vessels as are used by these insular mariners, who rarely from choice venture out of sight of land. About the time when the gospel was beginning to make its way in Raiatea, a canoe, with four men in it, was upset at sea, and the people were thrown into the 226 FINAL DEPARTURE FROM BORABORA. His water, where (though nearly amphibious) they must have been drowned amidst the everlasting waves, drifting them to and fro, unless speedily carried to shore, or taken up by some vessel. Two of the men, having embraced Christianity, immediately cried, "Let us pray to Jehovah, for He can save us."-" Why did you not pray to Ilim sooner?" replied their pagan comrades; "here we are in the water, and it is useless to pray now." The Christians, however, did cry mightily unto their God, while all four were clinging for life to the broken canoe. In this situation a shark suddenly rushed towards them, and seized one of the men. companions held him as fast and as long as they could; but the monster prevailed in the tug between them, and hurried the unfortunate victim into the abyss, marking the track with his blood. He was one of the two who were idolaters. After some time the tide bore the surviving three to the reef, when, just as they were cast upon it, a second shark snatched the other idolater with his jaws, and carried off his prey, shrieking in vain for assistance, which the two Christians, themselves struggling with the breakers, could not afford him. This circumstance very naturally made a great impression upon the minds of their countrymen, and powerfully recommended to them the "God that heareth prayer." June 2. The congregation held a meeting to take leave of us, at which all the baptized were present. These had prepared presents of cloth, working-tools, &c., for their friends, the native teachers, residing on various islands at which we intended to touch in our voyage to the colony. There was a separate bundle for each; and all were delivered into our hands, with letters of affection from the church to them, as the absent and the beloved of this little community of faithful men, who, having received the truth in the love of it, had sent out their brethren to teach it to those who were yet ignorant and out of the way, in heathen lands. June 4. This day we reached Borabora, where we tarried till the 7th, and then took the last of all our farewells in the Georgian and Society Islands; commending with tears, and prayers, and inexpressible emotions of gratitude, attachment, and regret at the thought that we should see them no more, all the people of all the stations, and all their faithful and devoted teachers, the missionaries, "to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build them up, |