484 EXTRACTS FROM AUNA'S JOURNAL, "June 2. (Lord's day.) We had public worship in Opiia's house, who, with her husband and family, attended. But so great was the disturbance with the companies of dancers, the singing, and the beating upon the huru, that we could only have one service. "June 3. The people of the land brought many presents to Taumuraii and Kaahumanu. There were twelve baked dogs, sixty live ones, five hundred and ninety pieces of cloth, thirty-five calabashes of poi, and two large canoes. "June 4. Kaahumanu having commanded some of her people to go for the idol of Tamehameha, namely, Teraipahoa, it was brought to-day, with nine smaller idols, and they were all publicly burnt. My heart rejoiced in beholding them in the midst of the flames. * "June 19. At Kairua, the residence of Kaakini, nephew to Kaahumanu, the chiefs brought us two hundred and twenty-nine fishes, twenty dogs, three calabashes of poi, and forty pieces of cloth. There was afterwards a grand huru. Thirty-three men played on the sticks, there were twenty-five dancers, and five great drums were beaten all the while. "June 20. To-day the chiefs brought four hundred baked dogs, and of cloth, mats, and other articles, four thousand. The feasting continued with terrible confusion all day long. Forty-one men danced in four rows; behind them were thirty-one musicians beating time on the sticks, besides five great drums. The people drank very much of an intoxicating liquor made from the juice of the sugar-cane. They often brought us some, and entreated us to taste, but we always refused, saying-' Once we were as fond of it as you are, but now we know it to be a bad thing, and therefore do not wish to drink it, and we advise you to let it alone also.' But this was said in vain. "June 21. Kuakini, the governor, has presented to his visitors six hundred and twenty-two dogs, fifty-eight calabashes of poi, three feathered cloaks, and two canoes. "June 23. (Lord's day.) The chiefs were all gone to sport in the surf this morning. At noon they returned, and then we had public worship. I read a chapter in one of the Gospels, and afterwards prayed with them. Aore, Kuakini, and several others, attended. Many more came to our family worship in the evening. "June 24. In the morning Miomioi, a man belonging to the queen, was sent on board of the vessels to fetch eight of the idols which had been brought from the other side of the island, and were intended to have been carried to the king at Oahu. The reason why they sent for them now was— the man who had been left on board to take care of the goods was seized with illness in the night, and removed from the ship to the shore. The chiefs immediately said, ' It is the spirits of the idols which are trying to kill the man; let us, therefore, send for them and burn them.' In the afternoon the messenger returned with Teraipahoa, Tetonemotu, Paparahaamau, Hatuahia, Kaunaruura, Maiora, and Akuahanai. These were all soon after devoured by the fire, at which my heart rejoiced. "June 26. Early this morning Kuakini's men, who had been sent on board of all the vessels to search for idols, returned. The chief man then ordered his people to make a large fire, and he himself set to work to help them. So he and his people burnt one hundred and two idols on the spot. Then I thought of what I had witnessed in Tahiti and Moorea, when our idols were thrown into the flames, particularly those that were consumed at Papetoai and Patii; and with my heart I praised Jehovah, the true God, that I now saw these people following our example. 486 EXTRACTS FROM AUNA'S JOURNAL. "Taumaarii and Kuakini talked a great deal with me this day about our destruction of the idols at Tahiti, and seemed very glad indeed that they had burnt theirs, though not all yet, for the people, they said, had hid some among the rocks." CHAPTER XXIII. Distressing Weather at Sea-Nocturnal Beauty of the Heavens-Voracity Friday, Aug. 23. DURING the forenoon we (the Deputation, Mr. Ellis, and our ship's company) were becalmed, while a rolling cross-sea occasioned such violent pitching of our little vessel that some of us were more disordered by it than we had been before in all our voyages since we left England. Towards evening the wind sprang up, and our ship's motion became yet more distressing. The hogs and goats were exceedingly disturbed, and plunged about in their alarm; one of the largest of the former even leaped over the bulwarks, and was lost. Aug. 24. The high gale of last night abated towards dawn, and we should have been again becalmed, but for the turbulence of the waves. We are now making our course eastward of the islands. Yesterday evening, amidst the fading glory of sunset, and through the gathering gloom of night, the snow-topped mountains of Hawaii, at the distance 488 NOCTURNAL BEAUTY OF THE HEAVENS. of fifty miles, presented images of splendour that seemed scarcely to belong to this earth-glittering, then glimmering, then slowly disappearing, as we saw them between the flat sea and the arched sky. The rolling of our small bark, the flapping of her loose sails, the rattling of idle ropes, and the uneasiness of most of the living creatures, both human and brute, on board, made the day irksome and the night dreary. Sept. 2. The last sentence, under date of Aug. 24, sufficiently describes the circumstances and feelings by which our patience was exercised during the intervening days. A comfortless calm, occasionally interrupted with a brief brisk gale, or diversified with heavy showers, continued all this while, and we made comparatively little way. A few tropical birds visited us, from time to time. These, when they came towards the vessel, or receded from it, were always welcomed or regretted, as inhabitants of shores invisible to us, which they could reach in a few hours on their wings of surpassing swiftness, while we were ever moving, yet never perceived ourselves nearer, by any way-marks, to the island-harbours which we sought. The evenings, during this interval, were often gorgeous with the array of clouds, intensely brilliant, dark or flecked with every hue the setting sun could shed upon their skirts, and modified in every form, fantastic, flimsy, or sublime, the varying winds could give them, as they came, and were, and went, we knew not whence, or how, or whither. The nights, too, after these twilight apparitions, were correspondingly serene and beautiful with stars; while frequent meteors, as we looked upon the figured firmament, startled us out of silent thought into sudden ejaculations. Sept. 7. A shark gave us a singular proof of pertinacious voracity. In bolting at a bait, he ran off with a large hook, |