96 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC.

could not be diverted. For a church bell a thickiron hoop was used, which was struck by an iron bolt.In the same year, on the 6th of June, the first bap-tism at the Society Islands was performed, when in thepresence of 4,000 people the king, the first subject ofthis sacrament, was baptized, and after him many othernatives.

With new views of duty, derived from Christian expe-rience, Pomare now began to feel the need of a bettersystem of governing his islands, and sought the aid ofthe missionaries in making a written code of laws.When this code was prepared he called a great assemblyof 7,000 of the natives and read it to them; and theyunanimously voted to accept it. Copies of it were sentto all the chiefs and it was afterwards rigorously enforced;so rigorously that the Queen-Dowager was afterwardsarrested for cutting down a tree of a poor man, andmade to pay restitution, which, however, the mangallantly refused to receive. The result of the estab-lishment of the code was a greater peace and order andprosperity of the islands.

In the year 1821 King Pomare died in joyful Chris-tian hope. He was succeeded by his son, who was onlyfour years old; but the boy lived only a little over ayear, and was succeeded by his sister, who reigned withthe title,‘Queen Pomare.”

The good work that had been accomplished inTahiti soon extended to the Leeward Islands; for mis-sionaries had occasionally labored in these islands fromthe beginning of their work in Tahiti . Those of them