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HIS INCONSISTENT CONDUCT.

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of the sailors that visited the islands, and drank to excess. Yet, strange to say, he would allow no stills in his kingdom, lest his subjects should indulge in drinking spirits.

Stills had been introduced into the islands by those Sandwich Islanders who escaped from the Nautilus. They were large stone basins, with pipes fixed to them. The natives learned to distil spirits by boiling the ti root in these basins, and then they sat round them, and drank till their merriment ended in bloodshed and murder. Pomare had caused all these stills to be destroyed some years before, because he said he would not encourage his people to put an enemy into their mouths, to steal away their senses; yet he himself was so much deceived by Satan, as to be induced to commit this sin.

Pomare was also guilty of some acts of oppression, though not of such great ones as in former times. He would not allow the people to sell their property to the ships, but chose to buy their things himself, at what price he pleased, that he might sell them to the ships. This act of oppression displeased the people, and grieved the missionaries.

Neither did he show that confidence in the brethren, that he ought to have felt in such faithful friends. His behaviour to Mr. Gyles was a proof of this.

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POMARE'S PIOUS HABITS.

Mr. Gyles had been sent to the South Seas the year before, to teach the natives to make sugar from the sugar-canes, that grew in abundance in the islands. He built a mill in Eimeo, in which he pressed the canes, and he afterwards boiled the juice, from which sugar was produced. An ill-disposed captain told Pomare, that if his people learned to make sugar, an army would come and make slaves of them. Pomare believed the slander, and desired Mr. Gyles to depart. This command Mr. Gyles immediately obeyed, and thus the natives were prevented from pursuing a useful and profitable occupation.

If Pomare had felt a proper confidence in the brethren, he would not have credited this evil report, as they assured him it was false.

Pomare's state of mind continued to perplex his best friends. Though he had been baptized, he expressed no desire to partake of the Lord's Supper, but always said that he was not fit to partake of it. He continued, however, to have family worship morning and evening, and often sat with twenty attendants around him, reading the Scriptures with them verse by verse, and afterwards either engaged in prayer himself, or asked one of these attendants to undertake the office.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

1820.

THE ROYAL BABE.

As we have lately been obliged to speak of the faults of king Pomare, it will be the more pleasant to relate some good things that he did. He went to a little island, called High Island, or Raivavai, (which was four hundred miles from Tahiti,) where he found the people fighting against each other. He entreated the chiefs to be reconciled, and succeeded in persuading them to leave off war, and to cast away their idols, and appointed two excellent natives of Tahiti, whom he had brought with him, to teach the inhabitants. As the people in this island considered Pomare to be their king, he left this command before he departed, "Watch, and the man who stirs up war again, let him be put to death."

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A few months afterwards a ship came to the island, and the captain was astonished to find the inhabitants crowded into a large chapel, and above a hundred persons, who could not enter, standing outside. He heard that all the

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BIRTH OF A PRINCE.

inhabitants had abandoned their idols, and had turned some of them into stools for their chapel.

There were many more little islands, which had now abolished the worship of idols, and left off war, through the instructions of native teachers.

The six missionaries who now lived in Tahiti, did not all reside in one place, as the first missionaries had done, but were stationed in different villages.

Mr. Crook was settled at Pa-pe-e-te, a place about eight miles distant from Matavai. Here also the queen and her sister, and the little princess Aimata, resided, and were in consequence very often with Mr. Crook and his family, to whom they became much attached. Aimata went regularly to school, and improved rapidly. The queen and her sister attended both the school and Mrs. Crook's meetings for the instruction of women. This conduct was pleasing in persons of their high station, and showed humility of mind, that gave hope of increasing piety.

In June a very important event occurred in the royal family. The queen became the mother of a little boy. The king, who usually resided near the Royal Mission Chapel at Papao, came immediately to see his wife and son. He appeared pleased, and expressed his wish that no one but Mrs. Crook should touch

THE BABY'S MOTHERS.

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the infant: she took it, and dressed it like an English baby. As Mrs. Crook, however, could not always attend to it, the queen's sister became the baby's nurse; though it was generally at the house of Mrs. Crook, who was called its mother, because the king had given her the principal charge of it. Little Mary Crook was also called its mother, because she had been chosen by the queen (according to the old custom) as her particular friend, and she employed herself diligently in making clothes for the young prince.

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To give you some idea of the king's character, we will mention a few trifling circumstances that occurred during the short time he stayed near the queen at Papeete.

On the morning after his arrival, he attended Mr. Crook's family prayers, and afterwards walked through the school for grown-up people, to observe its order; then sat down in it, and conversed with some of the chiefs respecting a passage in the book of Samuel. He refused to go home and breakfast with Mr. Crook; but he sent a note to him soon afterwards, proposing to come at dinner-time, to eat flour with him, that is, pie or pudding; for as no corn grows in the islands, flour is a rarity. At dinner, he took much notice of a map, that was hung up in the room. Mr. Crook spoke to the king of the little prince, and recommended

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