the royal family, and the most influential
persons in the nation, were present; and Haamanemane, an aged chief of
Raiatea, and chief priest of Tahiti, was the principal agent for the
natives on this occasion.

"Whatever advantages the king or chiefs might expect to derive from this
settlement on the island, it must not be supposed that any desire to
receive moral or religious instruction formed a part. A desire to
possess European property, and to receive the assistance of the
Europeans in the exercise of the mechanical arts or in their wars, was
probably the motive by which the natives were most strongly influenced.

"Having landed ten missionaries at Tongataboo, in the Friendly Islands,
Captain Wilson visited and surveyed several of the Marquesan Islands,
and left Mr Crook, a missionary, there. He then returned to Tahiti,
and on July 6 the Duff again anchored in Matavai Bay. The health of the
missionaries had not been affected by the climate. The conduct of the
natives had been friendly and respectful, and supplies in abundance had
been furnished during his absence. On August 4, 1797, the Duff finally
sailed from the bay. The missionaries returning from the ship, as well
as those on shore, watched her course, as she slowly receded from their
view, under no ordinary sensations. They now felt that they were cut
off from all but Divine guidance, protection, and support, and had
parted with those by whose counsels and presence they had been assisted
in entering upon their labours, but whom, on earth, they did not expect
to meet again.

"Their acquaintance with the most useful of the mechanic arts not only
delighted the natives, but raised the missionaries in their estimation,
and led them to desire their friendship. This was strikingly evinced on
several occasions, when they beheld them use their carpenters' tools,
cut with a saw a number of boards out of a tree, which they had never
thought it possible to split into more than two, and make with these
chests and articles of furniture. When they beheld a boat built,
upwards of twenty feet long and six tons burden, they were pleased and
surprised; but when the blacksmith's shop was erected, and the forge and
anvil were first employed on their shores, they were filled with
astonishment. When the heated iron was hammered on the anvil, and the
sparks flew among them, they fancied it was spitting at them, and were
frightened, as they also were with the hissing occa