seats appropriated for them in the chapel; and where there have been galleries, these have been occupied by the scholars. Frequently we have been approaching the place of worship at the same time that the schools have entered it, and it has often afforded the sweetest satisfaction to behold a father or a mother, with an infant in the arms, standing under the shade of a tree that grew by the side of the road near the chapel, to see in the line of scholars, a son or daughter pass by. When the object of affection has approached, a smile of pleasure has indicated the satisfaction of the child at the notice taken by the parent, and that smile has been reciprocated by the parent, who, in silent gladness, followed to the house of God.

The morning service commences with singing, during which the congregations stand; a portion of scripture is then read, and prayer offered, the congregation kneeling or standing. This is followed by singing a second time; a sermon is then preached, after which a short hymn is sung, prayer presented, and the benediction given; with which the service closes, between halfpast ten and eleven o'clock.

Although the religious exercises are now rather longer than they were when the people first began to attend, they seldom exceed an hour and a half on the Sabbath, and little more than an hour at other times. It has always appeared preferable, even to multiply the services, should that be necessary, than weary the attention of the people by unduly protracting them. When the congregation has dispersed, the children are conducted to the schools in the same order in which they came to the chapel, and are there dismissed by one of their teachers.

In the afternoon they assemble in the schools, and read the scriptures, repeat hymns, or portions of the catechism, and are questioned as to their recollection of the sermon of the forenoon. We have sometimes been surprised at the readiness with which the children have recited the text, divisions, and leading thoughts in a discourse, without having written it down at the time they heard it. Often it has been most cheering to see them thus employed; exhibiting all the native simplicity of childhood, mingled with the indications of no careless exercise of the youthful mind on the important matters of religion. It is always delightful to watch the commencement and progress of mental improvement, and the early efforts of intellect; but it was peculiarly so here. In the Sabbath-schools of the South Sea Islands, the mechanical parts of instruction (namely, learning to read and spell, &c.) are not attended to; the time is wholly occupied in the religious improvement of the pupils, and is generally of a catechetical kind.

Many of the parents attend as spectators at the Sabbath-schools, and it is not easy to conceive the sacred delight they experienced in beholding the improvement of their children, and attending at an exercise often advantageous to their own minds. The greater part of the people, however, spend the middle of the day in their own dwellings. Formerly they were accustomed to sleep, but we believe this practice is by many discontinued.

The public service in the evening commences, in most of the stations, about a quarter before four, and is performed in the same manner as that in the forenoon. Meetings for reading the scriptures and prayer are held at some of the native houses in the evening, and we

usually read a sermon in the English language in our own families.

The attendance of the people is regular, and the attention seldom diverted. At first we perceived a great inclination to drowsiness, especially during the afternoon at this we were not surprised, when we recollected that this was the manner in which they were accustomed to spend several hours every day, and that they were also unaccustomed to fixedness of attention, or exercise of thought on a particular subject, for any length of time. This habit, however, has, we have reason to believe, very greatly diminished in all the islands, and more particularly where congregations are accustomed regularly to assemble.

The scrupulous attention to the outward observance of the Sabbath, may perhaps in some degree be the result of the impression left on the minds of the people by the distinguishing features of their former system, in which all the efficacy of their services consisted in the rigid exactness with which sacred days were kept, and religious ceremonies performed, without the least regard to the motives and dispositions of the devotees. To have kindled a fire, or to have failed in the observance of any rite enjoined, or restriction imposed, during their tabu, or sacred seasons, would have been sufficient, not only to have neutralized all the advantages expected from the most costly offerings or tedious services, but would have exposed the offenders to the anger of the god, and perhaps to death as its

consequence.

With many, the influence of a system so inflexible has probably operated very powerfully in producing this uniform attention, at least to the outward duties

of the Sabbath, the only sacred day now recognized amongst them. With others, there is reason to believe it arises from the influence of example, and the respectability it was at this time supposed to impart to individual character. But with many it originates in far higher motives, and is the result of christian principle in regard to what they consider a duty.

one.

A number of instances, strikingly illustrative of this fact, might be adduced; I will, however, only refer to A man came to the Monday evening meeting on one occasion, and said his mind was troubled, as he feared he had done wrong. He was asked in what respect; when he answered, that, on the preceding day, which was the Sabbath, when returning from public worship, he observed that the tide, having risen higher than usual, had washed out to sea a large pair of double canoes, which he had left on the beach. At first he thought of taking a smaller canoe, fetching back the larger ones, and fixing them in a place of security; but while he was deliberating, it occurred to his recollection that it was the Sabbath, and that the scriptures prohibited any work. He therefore allowed the canoes to drift towards the reef, until they were broken on the rocks. But, he added, though he did not work on the Sabbath, his mind was troubled on account of the loss he had sustained, and that he thought was wrong. He was immediately told that he would have done right, had he fetched the canoes to the shore on the Sabbath. When, however, it was considered, that perhaps this pair of canoes had cost him nearly twelve months' labour, and that, before they were lost he was comparatively richer than many an English merchant is in the possession of a five or six hundred ton vessel, it appears

a remarkable instance of conscientious regard for the Sabbath-day.

Since the abolition of idolatry, no part of the conduct of the South Sea Islanders has impressed the minds of foreign visitants more forcibly than their attention to the observance of the Sabbath. I never saw any, even the most irreligious, or those unfriendly to Missions, who were not constrained to confess that it surpassed all they had heard or imagined could have been exhibited; while others, more favourably disposed, have publicly declared its effect on their own minds.

When Mr. Crook arrived in 1816, the ship reaching Tahiti on the Sabbath, no canoe put off, no native was seen on the beach, no smoke in any part of the districtand they began to apprehend either that the population had been swept off by some contagious disease, or that they had all gone to battle. At length their fears were removed by one of the party, who had been there before, observing, that it was the Sabbath, and that on that day the natives did not launch their canoes, or light their fires, &c. In 1821, Captain Grimes "was surprised at the regularity and good order observed; the children of the Sabbath-school were ushered in by their teachers in their different classes, with as much uniformity as we see in public schools in London." Several masters of South Sea whalers, captains and officers in his majesty's navy, have borne the most decided testimony to these facts. A naval officer, who was at Tahiti in 1822, stated, that he visited the islands under a considerable degree of prejudice against the Missionaries, and suspicion respecting the reported change among the people,—but that his visit had entirely removed both. It was Friday when the vessel arrived; the natives thronged the ship