sioned by immersing
it in water; yet they were delighted to see the facility with which a
bar of iron was thus converted into hatchets, adzes, fish-spears,
fish-hooks, and other things. Pomare, entering one day when the
blacksmith was employed, after gazing a few minutes at the work, was so
transported at what he saw that he caught up the smith in his arms, and,
unmindful of the dirt and perspiration inseparable from his occupation,
most cordially embraced him, and saluted him, according to the custom of
his country, by touching noses." [Abridged from _Polynesian
Researches_, by the Rev. W. Ellis.]

It is not to be wondered at that the favourable reports sent home by
these missionaries encouraged those who received them to believe that
almost all difficulties had already been, or were in a fair way of being
speedily overcome, and that these distant islands were, to use the
figurative language of Scripture, "stretching out their hands unto God."
They did not know--it was wisely and mercifully hidden from them--that
a long night of toil had yet to be passed before the dawn of that better
day they longed to see, and for which they prayed and strove.

"Decisive and extensive as the change has since become," says the writer
just quoted, "it was long before any salutary effects appeared as the
result of their endeavours; and although the scene is now one of
loveliness and quietude, cheerful, yet placid as the smooth waters of
the bay, it has often worn a very different aspect. Here the first
missionaries frequently heard the song accompanying the licentious
areois dance, the deafening noise of the worship, and saw the human
victim carried by for sacrifice. Here, too, they often heard the
startling cry of war, and saw their frightened neighbours fly before the
murderous spear and plundering hand of lawless power. The invader's
torch reduced the native hut to ashes, while the lurid flame seared the
green foliage of the trees, and clouds of smoke, rising up among their
groves, darkened, for a time, surrounding objects. On such occasions,
and they were not infrequent, the contrast between the country and the
inhabitants must have been most affecting; appearing as if the demons of
darkness had lighted up infernal fires in the bowers of paradise."

These representations probably did not reach England until after the
missionaries had been some time in the islands, and meanwhile the ship
Duff was sent out a second time, with