ry handsome,
yet was her countenance on the whole prepossessing and agreeable. On
seeing me, she laid down the psalm-book in which she had been reading,
and having, with the help of her attendants, changed her lying for a
sitting posture, she held out her hand to me in a very friendly manner,
with many "_Arohas!_" and invited me to take a seat on a chair by her
side. Her memory was better than my own; she recognised me as the
Russian officer who had visited the deceased monarch Tameamea, on the
island of O Wahi. On that occasion I had been presented to the Queens;
but since that time Nomahanna had so much increased in size, that I did
not know her again. She was aware how highly I esteemed her departed
consort; my appearance brought him vividly to her remembrance, and she
could not restrain her tears, in speaking of his death. "The people,"
said she, "have lost in him a protector and a father. What will now be
the fate of these islands, the God of the Christians only knows." She
now informed me with much self-gratulation that she was a Christian, and
attended the prayer-meeting several times every day. Desirous to know
how far she had been instructed in the religion she professed, I
inquired through Marini the grounds of her conversion. She replied that
she could not exactly describe them, but that the missionary Bengham,
who understood reading and writing perfectly well, had assured her that
the Christian faith was the best; and that, seeing how far the Europeans
and Americans, who were all Christians, surpassed her compatriots in
knowledge, she concluded that their belief must be the most reasonable.
"If, however," she added, "it should be found unsuited to our people, we
will reject it, and adopt another."

Hence it appears that the christianity of the missionaries is not
regarded with the reverence which, in its purity, it is calculated to
inspire in the most uncultivated minds. In conclusion, Nomahanna
triumphantly informed me, that the women might now eat as much pork as
they pleased, instead of being, as formerly, limited to dog's flesh. At
this observation, an intrusive idea suddenly changed her tone and the
expression of her features. With a deep sigh, she exclaimed--"What would
Tameamea say if he could behold the changes which have taken place here?
No more Gods--no more Marais: all are destroyed! It was not so in his
time:--we shall never have such another king!" Then, while the tears
trickled down her cheeks