During our stay at Rarotonga, I obtained a minute and interesting account from Papeiha, of the circumstances which occurred from his first landing to the time of our arrival, a brief abstract of which I shall present to the reader. On reaching the shore, he was conducted to the house of old Makea, the father of the present chief of that name. An immense crowd followed him, one of whom was saying, “I'll have his hat;” another, “I'll have his jacket;” a third, “I'll have his shirt;” but they did not carry their threats into execution; for the chief called out, “Speak to us, O man, that we may know the business on which you are come.” Papeiha replied, that he had come to instruct them in the knowledge of the true God, and the way of eternal salvation through his Son Jesus Christ, in order that, as the inhabitants of Tahiti, the Society, and other islands had done, they also might burn the idols of wood, of cloth, and of birds' feathers which they had made and called gods. Immediately there burst from the multitude an exclamation of surprise and horror: “What! burn the gods! what gods shall we then have, and what shall we do without the gods?”