in consequence, civilization was advancing with wonderfully rapid strides.”

The point referred to by Captain Gambier, is situated at a short distance to the right of the view of Fare, as given in the annexed plate engraved from a sketch taken on the spot by Captain Elliot. It is a delightful spot, and affords an extensive view of the unruffled waters of the bay, and the infant settlement rising on its shores. The figures along the bottom refer to the following buildings: No. 1. The chapel; 2. The residence of Mahine, the chief of the island,-this was the first house with an upper room which the natives erected. No. 3. is placed beneath the schools. 4. Marks the site where our dwelling stood, and that of my coadjutor, Mr. Barff; both these were erected at some distance from the shore, and stood on an elevation at the foot of the mountains forming the boundary of the valley.

Although we always urged the completion of their houses as soon as they could, we were often highly interested in visiting their partially finished dwellings. There is something peculiarly pleasing in watching the process which periodically changes the face of the natural world. The swelling bud-the opening blossom-the expanding leaves-the tiny fruit-formations, as they regularly pass under the eye of the observer, are not less interesting than the bough bending with full-ripe fruit. The process which effects the changes marking the progress from birth to maturity in the animal creation, is not less curious; and at this time we beheld a work advancing which was rapidly transforming the character and habits of a nation, and materially altering even the aspect of the habitable portions of their country. This gave a peculiar interest to the nondescript sort of

dwelling, half native hut, and half European cottage, which many of the people at this time inhabited. They marked the steps, and developed the process, by which they were rising from the rude and cheerless degradation of the one, to the elevation and enjoyment of the other. These sensations were often heightened by our beholding in the neighbourhood of these half-finished houses, the lonely and comfortless hut they had abandoned, and the neatly finished cottage in which the inmates enjoyed a degree of comfort, that, to use their own powerful expression, made them sometimes ready to doubt whether they were the same people who had been contented to inhabit their former dwellings, surrounded by pigs and dogs, and swarms of vermin, while the wind blew over them, and the rain beat upon them.

The greater number of houses, already erected, contain only two or three rooms on one floor, but several of the chiefs have built spacious, and, considering the materials with which they are constructed, substantial habitations, with two stories, and a number of rooms in each, having also some of the windows glazed. Mahine, the king of Huahine, was, we believe, the first native of the South Sea Islands, who finished a house with upper rooms. When done, it was quite a curiosity, or occasion of wonder, among the natives of the Leeward Islands, and multitudes came on purpose to see it. It was built with care, and, considering it as a specimen of native workmanship, was highly creditable to their industry, perseverance, and ingenuity. Many of the natives, especially those who have been native housebuilders, are tolerably good carpenters, and handle tools with facility. They have also been taught to saw

trees into a number of boards, instead of splitting them into two planks, which was their former practice.

The stone in the northern parts of the island is a kind of compact ancient lava, and, though rather hard, is, we think, adapted for buildings. We were desirous to induce some of the chiefs to attempt the erection of a stone house; but they had no proper tools for preparing the stone, and the labour was also greater than in their present state of civilization they were disposed to undertake. It is not, however, improbable that stone buildings will ultimately supersede the neat, yet, compared he *** with those erected of less perishable materials, temporary dwellings they are now occupying. The coral rock is also more durable than the plaster; and although soft, and easily hewn when first taken out of the sea, it afterwards assumes a degree of hardness which resists the weather for a long series of years. A chapel has been built with this material in the island of Eimeo, and will probably last longer than any yet erected.

When we arrived in Eimeo, Messrs. Hayward and Bicknell were residing in boarded dwellings with chambers, and Mr. Nott, in a house, the walls of which were neatly plastered. The earth in some parts of the islands would probably answer for bricks; and the Missionaries formerly made one or two attempts to prepare them for ovens, &c. but did not succeed. Individuals professing to understand making bricks have once or twice offered to teach the natives; but much as we have wished to possess permanent brick houses for ourselves, or to recommend the natives to prepare such, we are convinced that the labour would be too great, and the failures in burning them too frequent, to allow at present of their being made with advantage, yet we hope they will follow the

plastered cottage, as that now occupies the place of the native hut.

The timber principally employed in their buildings, is the wood of the bread-fruit; and although they are careful of this valuable tree, it is necessary frequently to urge the duty of planting, in order to ensure a future supply not only of timber but of food, as the large trees are now comparatively few, and the population is evidently increasing.

In the commencement of a new settlement, or the establishment of a town, like that rising around us at the head of Fare harbour, we were desirous that it should assume something like a regular form, as it regarded the public buildings and habitations of the chiefs and people. We repeatedly advised the chiefs and others to build their houses and form their public roads in straight lines, and to leave regular and equal distances between the roads and the houses, and also between their respective

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dwellings. Our endeavours, however, were unavailing. god

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They could perceive nothing that was either desirable or advantageous in a straight road, or regularity in the site, and uniformity in the size or shape, of their dwellings. Every one, therefore, followed his own inclinations. The size of the building was regulated by the number in bette the family, the rank or the means of its proprietor, and the shape by his fancy. It was oblong or square, with high gable, or circular ends covered with thatch, so that the building resembled an oval more than any other shape.

The situations selected were either parts of their own ground, or such places as accorded with their taste and habits. Those who were frequently upon the waters, and enjoyed the gentle sea-breezes, or wished to excel their neighbours, built a massy pier or causeway in the

sea, and, raising it four or five feet above high-water mark, covered it with smooth flat stones, and then erected their houses upon the spot they had thus recovered from the sea, by which it was on three sides surrounded. The labour required for effecting this, prevented any but chiefs from building in such situations. Others, actually building upon the sand, erected their dwelling upon the upper edge of the beach, within four or five yards of the rising tide.

The public road, from six to twelve feet wide, which led through the district, extending in a line parallel with the coast, presented all its curvatures. Some of the

natives built their houses facing the sea; others, turning their fronts towards the mountain, reared them within five or six feet of the road; while several, of a more retiring disposition, built in the centre of their plantations, or under the embowering shade of a grove of bread-fruit trees, enclosing them within the fence that surrounded their dwelling. Some of the leading chiefs, in order to enjoy a more extensive prospect, and to breathe a purer atmosphere, left the humidity and shade of the lowland and the valley, and built their houses on the sides of the verdant hills that rise immediately behind the bay, and form the connecting link between the rocks around the beach and the high mountains of the interior.

A settlement thus formed could never possess any approximation to uniformity; and although we had endeavoured to persuade the people to render it more regular, yet it often seemed as if the variety in size and shape among the buildings, and the irregularity of their situation, was in perfect keeping with the wild, untrained luxuriant loveliness, and romantic appearance,