Neither did they tatau their bodies, though their dialect was similar to that of the Sandwich Islanders. Their thievish propensities appeared to be highly developed, nor were they wanting in a certain sort of reckless daring.

In 1823 Mr Williams visited this island with the intention of leaving a native teacher to prepare the minds of the inhabitants for the reception of divine truth, but desisted from his purpose on learning that the population had been reduced by incessant wars to sixty individuals. Some years later this scanty remnant had become still further diminished by relentless strife to five men, three women, and a few children, and these were disputing which of the five should be king over the others.

Captain Cook is also entitled to the honour of discovering Mangaia, which he sighted for the first time in 1777. This island exceeds twenty miles in circumference, and is well wooded, but almost unapproachable by a European boat, by reason of the heavy surf caused by a close-fitting girdle of coral-reefs. The natives had long beards, and were tataued on the inside of their arms from the elbow to the shoulder, and on some other parts of the body. The lobe of their ears was slit to such an extent that one of them stuck into it a knife and a string of beads that had been given to him. A chief who ventured on board, happening to stumble over a goat, asked what kind of bird it was, but was too frightened to pay much attention to the other wonders that surrounded him. The population, fifty years ago, was estimated at between two and three thousand.

When visited by Mr Williams in 1823 the islanders showed the greatest disinclination to hold any intercourse with the strange ship, which was the second that any of

them had ever seen. A native teacher named Papeiha, one of the Raiatean converts, volunteered, however, to go ashore alone, in the hope of bringing about a better mutual understanding. There being no opening in the reef to admit of the passage of a boat, he boldly leaped into the waves and swam to the land. His reception was all that could be desired. At his request the natives tied up their spears in bundles with their slings, and expressed their readiness to receive instruction, promising protection to the two married teachers who had undertaken the task of converting them from the error of their ways.

Papeiha accordingly returned to the ship, and made such a favourable report that the teachers and their wives agreed to go back with him. No sooner, however, had they landed, than a rush was made to seize their few articles of property. A saw which one of them was carrying was snatched from his hand and broken to pieces. the fragments being appended from the ears as ornaments. A box of bonnets intended for the wives of the chiefs was dragged through the water. The bedsteads were divided among as many owners as could run off with a post or any other portion.

The bamboo-canes of cocoa-nut oil were speedily emptied of their contents, which the despoilers poured over each other's heads and bodies as though it were water. Two pigs, unknown animals in that island, were secured by a chief, who decorated them with his own insignia, and dedicated them to the gods.

Far worse than all this was their treatment of the teachers and their wives. The former were thrown on the ground and held down by main force, while the unfortunate women were dragged through water and mire into the

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woods, when the report of a small cannon fired from the ship terrified and dispersed their brutal assailants.

Papeiha, who narrowly escaped strangulation, courageously upbraided the chief for inviting them ashore among such savages, and told him that the Christians meant nothing but what was good to himself and his people. The chief, who had really exerted himself to keep order, is said to have shed tears, excusing himself, however, on the ground that in Mangaia "all heads being of an equal height," he had not the power to protect the strangers as he had wished to do. The teachers and their wives got back to the ship in a very sorry plight, their hats and bonnets smashed, their dresses torn to shreds, and the whole of their little property stolen or destroyed. A second attempt was out of the question, and the missionaries, grievously disappointed, sailed away for Atiu.

Not many months, however, elapsed before the venture was successfully renewed. Shortly after the departure of the missionary ship a terrible epidemic broke out in the island, which spared neither youth nor old age, and showed itself no respecter of persons. The calamity was ascribed to the "God of the strangers," who was thus taking vengeance for the affront offered to His servants, just as Homer attributes the plague that decimated the Greeks under the walls of Troy to the anger of the far-darting Apollo, because the daughter of his priest was held in shameful captivity. The hearts of the islanders were accordingly troubled within them, and they solemnly vowed that if the offended Deity would stay His destroying hand, they would receive kindly any of His worshippers who should visit them.

While they were in this state of contrition, another missionary ship arrived off the island, and two unmarried