A few months later the mission ship went there again, and two unmarried teachers, Davida and Tiere, sprang into the sea and swam to the shore, carrying nothing but the clothing they wore and a portion of the New Testament in Tahitian, which was wrapped in cloth and tied on their heads. A great crowd assembled at the landing, and as they stepped on shore several warriors levelled spears at them. The King took the swimmers under his protection, treated them kindly, took them to the temple, and pronounced them tabu, or sacred, so that the natives should not harm them.
Within two years Tiere died, but the work of conversion went on so well that one day the King and his chiefs determined to give up idolatry. They carried the thirteen idols which they had hitherto worshipped to the house of Davida, and announced that for the future they would worship the God of the white man. These thirteen idols are now preserved in the museum of the London Missionary Society.
[Illustration: LANDING ON AN ATOLL OF THE HERVEY GROUP.]
In 1821 Mr. Williams decided to send a mission from Raiatea to the Hervey Isles, of which very little was known beyond the bare existence of such a group, and that it was inhabited by fierce cannibals. Several native converts from Raiatea were landed on the island of Aitutaki; they were well received by the chief and his people, but Mr. Williams had great fears for their safety, owing to the bad character of the cannibal inhabitants.
In the following year, when the mission ship went there again, great was the joy of Mr. Williams to learn that all the inhabitants had abandoned idolatry, burned their temples, and decided to be Christians; they had built a large church, kept the Sabbath religiously, and on the day following the arrival of the mission ship two thousand of them assembled on the beach in solemn prayer, which was led by the delighted missionary. After the service they brought their idols and carried them on board the mission ship, so that the people of the other islands might see for themselves that they had discarded altogether the worship of the worthless images.
The story of the conversion of the inhabitants of the island of Raratonga, of the Hervey group, sounds like romance. So little was known of this island that Mr. Williams had great trouble in finding it, as its latitude and longitude had not been established. Among the converts on another island were six natives of Raratonga; one of these men told Mr. Williams that if he would sail to a given point on the island of Aitutaki, he could take bearings that would carry him where he wished to go. So, taking the six Raratongans on board, he steered for the point indicated, and by following the directions of the man the island they sought was reached.