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effort was to build a lime-kiln, on which we bestowed considerable labour, though it did not ultimately answer. The natives prepared their lime by burning it in a large pit, in a manner resembling that in which they had prepared their ovens for opio. This was done with greater facility than they could burn it in the kiln they had built, though with less economy in fuel.

Specimens of fibrous limestone, and small fragments of calcareous rock, have been occasionally found in some of the islands, but not in quantity or kind to be available in the preparation of lime for building. Shells might be procured in tolerable abundance; but the white coral rock, of which the extensive reefs surrounding these islands are composed, and which appears inexhaustible, is used in the manufacture of lime.

The natives dive into the sea, sometimes several fathoms deep, in order to procure the solid or spongeshaped coral, which for this purpose is better than the forked or branching kinds. They also prefer that which is attached to the main reef, and growing, or, as they sometimes call it, live coral, to that which is broken off and hardened or dead. The large fragments or blocks of coral, sometimes three or four feet in diameter, thus procured, are conveyed on rafts to the shore, where they are broken into small pieces. A capacious hole is then dug, wherein fuel in immense logs is piled up till it assumes the appearance of a mound four or five feet high. On the outside of this, the pieces of coral are placed, twelve or eighteen inches thick. The pile is then kindled, the fuel consumed, and the lime, thus burnt, sinks down into the pit. They are generally so impatient to see whether it is well burnt, that they throw water upon it often before the fire is extinct;

and if they find it crumble and become pulverized, they cover it over with cocoa-nut leaves, and use it as occasion requires.

The coral rock makes excellent lime, not perhaps so strong as that made from rock-limestone, but fine, beautifully white, and durable. It may be obtained in any quantity, but the labour of procuring the fuel necessary for preparing it on the present plan, is exceedingly irksome. Could they be induced to erect kilns, and burn it after the European manner, it might be furnished with great facility, and the fact of their being able to prepare with little trouble, lime from the coral rock, would encourage them in building comfortable houses.

Our friends in Raiatea were perhaps more urgent than ourselves, in their recommendation of improved dwellings. On our first visit to Raiatea, in January 1819, the servants of Tamatoa, the king of that island, were plastering a house for his residence: it was nearly finished; the outside was completed, and they were at work within. A day or two after our return to Huahine, we were delighted to see one in the district of Fare actually finished. It was smaller than Tamatoa's, and differently shaped, his being oval, and this being nearly square, with high gable-ends. It belonged to an ingenious and industrious young man, whose name was Navenavehia, and who, although an inferior chief in Huahine, had accompanied Mahine to Eimeo, where he had resided in the family of Mr. George Bicknell, by whom he had been taught in some degree the use of tools, and the art of burning lime. It is not easy, nor is it material, to determine which of these two houses was finished first. They were certainly both

in hand at the same time, and the periods of their completion were probably not very remote from each other. A new order of architecture was thus introduced to the nation, and the names of Tamatoa, king of Raiatea, and of Navenavehia, the more humble chief in Huahine, ought not to be forgotten, in connexion with the introduction of a style of building which has since prevailed so extensively among the people, greatly augmenting their social and domestic comforts, changing the appearance of their villages, and improving the beautiful scenery of their islands.

These two houses were not only the first in the Leeward group, but they were the first of the kind ever erected, for their own abode, by any of the natives of the South Sea Islands.

The success of these individuals encouraged others, although we found great difficulty in persuading them to persevere in the heavy labour this improvement required, particularly as they were now actively employed in the erection of a spacious chapel, and the frames of our dwellings. It was no easy task for them to build houses of this kind; there were no regular carpenters and masons. Every man had, in the firstplace, to go to the woods or the mountains, and cut down trees for timber, trim them into posts, &c. and remove them to the spot where his house was to be built, then to erect the frame, with the doorway and windows. This being done, he must again repair to the woods for long branches of hibiscus for rafters, with which he framed the roof.

The leaves of the pandanus were next gathered, and soaked, and sewed on reeds, with which the roof was thatched. This formerly would have completed his

dwelling, but he now had to collect, with great labour, a large pile of firewood, to dig a pit, to dive into the sea for coral rock, to burn it, to mix it with sand so as to form mortar, wattle the walls and partitions of his house, and plaster them with lime. He then had to ascend the mountains again, to cut down trees, which he must either split or saw into boards for flooring his apartments, manufacturing doors, windows, shutters, &c. This was certainly a great addition of labour; and hence many occupy their cottages as soon as they have finished the roof, the walls, and the door-levelling the ground for the floor, and spreading grass over it-occupying one part, while they board or plaster the other.

In this state we found Navenavehia's house, when we paid him our first visit. We recommended him to persevere in completing it, and, in order to encourage him, promised him a few nails to make doors, and whatever else was wanting. He assured us of his intention to board the floor, and partition off their bedroom; but said, he thought they might as well live in it while he was doing this, and therefore had occupied it as soon as the walls were dry.

The settlements in the Leeward Islands now began to assume an entirely new aspect. Multitudes flocked from the different districts, to attend the means of instruction in the school, and on the Sabbath. The erection of a house upon the improved plan, regulating its size by the rank or means of the family for whom it was designed, became a kind of test of sincerity in professions of desire to be instructed; for to embrace Christianity, with the precepts which it inculcated, nothing could be more at variance than the habits of indolence and unsightly filthiness of their former habitations.

Activity was now the order of the day. Frames of buildings were seen rising with astonishing rapidity, in every part of the district; and houses of every size, from the lowly snug little cottage with a single door and window in front, to the large two-storied dwelling of the king or the chief. Buildings, in every stage of their progress, might be seen in a walk through the settlement: sometimes only a heap of spars and timber lay on the spot where the house was to be raised, but at other places the principal posts of the house were erected, others were thatched, and some partially or entirely enclosed with the beautiful white coral-lime plaster. Axes, hatchets, planes, chisels, gimlets, and saws, were, next to their books, the articles in greatest demand and highest esteem.

No small portion of our time was occupied in directing and encouraging them in their labours. We had, however, occasion to regret, that we were sometimes at as great a loss as the people themselves. They usually formed the walls of their dwellings, either by mortising upright posts into large trees laid on the earth, or planting the posts in the ground about three feet apart. The spaces between the posts, excepting those for doors or windows, were filled with a kind of hurdle-work, or wattling of small rods or sticks, of the tough casuarina. This they plastered with the mortar composed of coral-lime and sand, forming a plain surface, and covering also the posts on the outside, but leaving them projecting within.

The next object was to make the doors and windowshutters; thus far they had been able to proceed in the erection of their dwellings without nails; but to make doors and shutters without these, brought them

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