Images de page
PDF
ePub

was as diversified as the forms in which it was employed; it was, nevertheless, only when empty, that its irregularity and grotesque variety appeared. When well filled with respectably dressed and attentive worshippers, as it generally was on the Sabbath, the difference in the material or structure of the places they occupied, was not easily noticed.

A remarkably ingenious and durable low fence, called by the natives aumoa, was erected round it, and the área within the enclosure was covered with small fragments of white branching coral, called anaana, and found on the northern shores of the bay.

In the month of April, 1820, it was finished, and on the 3d of May I had the pleasure of opening it for Divine service.

A distressing epidemic had raged for some time among the people, and still confined many to their habitations, yet there were not fewer than fifteen hundred present. Many of them were arrayed in light European dresses, and all evidently appeared to feel a high degree of satisfaction in assembling for the public adoration of the Almighty in a building, in many respects an object of astonishment through the island, and which their own toil and perseverance had enabled them to finish.

Individuals in England, who have materially contributed by personal exertions or pecuniary aid to the erection or enlargement of a church or chapel, have, when the object of their solicitude and their toil has been accomplished, experienced emotions of satisfaction during the subsequent opportunities they have had of rendering divine homage there; but the satisfaction of the Tahitians, though the same in kind, I am disposed to believe is stronger in degree, when standing on the floor,

the trees constituting which, they cut down in the forestwhen skreened from the wind by that portion of the wall their own hands reared-and covered by that section of the roof which they had thatched.

While the inhabitants of Huahine were thus laudably engaged in providing the means of increasing their domestic enjoyments, and accommodating the assemblies for public worship; their neighbours in the adjacent island of Raiatea were not behind them in the rapidity of their improvement. They had erected a number of dwellinghouses, and a building for divine service, larger than that at Huahine, but inferior in elevation and breadth; being forty-two feet wide, and at the sides about ten feet high. It was finished a week or two earlier than the chapel in Huahine, and was opened on the 11th of April in the same year; when upwards of 2400 inhabitants of that and the adjacent islands assembled within its walls.

To the natives of Raiatea, this work of their own hands appeared a wonderful specimen of architecture; and the manner in which its interior was finished perfectly astonished them, and appeared no less surprising to the natives of the other islands. It was not only furnished with a pulpit, a desk, a boarded floor throughout, constructed of the tough planks of the reva, or (galaxa sparta,) and filled with pews and seats, but, by the invention and ingenuity of the Missionaries, it was subsequently furnished with a rustic set of chandeliers.

By this contrivance it could be lighted up for an evening congregation, while we were under the necessity of concluding all our public services before the sun departed. These chandeliers, as they may perhaps with propriety be called, were not indeed of curious workmanship or dazzling brilliancy, in polished metal or cut

glass, but of far more common materials, and rude simplicity of structure. The frame was of light tough wood, and the lamps, instead of being coloured and transparent, were opaque cocoa-nut shells. They were, however, the only inventions of the kind the natives had ever seen; and on the night when the chapel was first illuminated by their aid, as they came in one after another, and saw the glare of such a number of lights suspended from the roof in a manner that they could not at first understand, they involuntarily stopped to gaze as they entered the door, and few proceeded to their seats without an exclamation of admiration or surprise. Their astonishment was probably greater than would be experienced by an English peasant from a retired village, on beholding, for the first time, a spacious public building splendidly lighted up with gas.

Although we were pleased with the effect produced on the minds of the natives, and a thousand delightful associations reviving in our bosoms the first time we mingled with a crowded evening congregation, we did not recommend our people to follow the example their ingenious neighbours had set them. It appeared more desirable, in the partially organized state of society then prevailing in the islands, to conclude all our public meetings by daylight, rather than call the people from home after

sunset.

CHAP. IV.

Schools erected in Huahine-Historical facts connected with the site of the former building-Account of Mai, (Omai)-His visit to England with Captain Furneux-Society to which he was introduced-Objects of his attention-Granville Sharp-His return with Captain CookSettlement in Huahine-His subsequent conduct-Present proprietors of the Beritani in Huahine-House for hidden prayer-Cowper's lines on Omai-Royal Mission Chapel in Tahiti-Its dimensions, furniture, and appearance-Motives of the king in its erection-Description of native chapels-Need of clocks and bells-Means resorted to for supplying their deficiency-Attendance on public worship-Habits of cleanliness-Manner of wearing the hair-Process of shaving-Artificial flowers-Native toilet.

As soon as the new building in Huahine was finished, and appropriated to the sacred use for which it had been reared, the original chapel was converted into a school, and was scarcely sufficient to accommodate the increasing number of scholars.

Two new places, upon the same plan as the chapel, and built with similar materials, were afterwards erected one for the boys' school, and the other for the girls'; these, when finished, greatly facilitated the instruction of the people the accommodation they afforded, encouraging those to attend who had before been deterred.

The spot on which the old chapel and subsequent school had been erected, was connected with an important event in the modern history, not only of Huahine,

but the several adjacent clusters of islands. In September, 1773, when Captains Cook and Furneux left Huahine, the latter was accompanied by a native, who had intimated his desire to proceed in the ship on a visit to Britain. He was a Raiatean; who, after a defeat which his countrymen had sustained in an engagement with the daring and warlike natives of Borabora, had taken shelter in Huahine. His inducement to undertake a voyage, of the incidents and exposures of which he could form no idea, does not appear to have resulted so much from a wish to gratify a restless and ardent curiosity, as from the desire to obtain the means of avenging his country, and regaining the hereditary possessions of his family, which were now occupied by the victors.

The name of this individual was Mai, usually called Omai, from the circumstance of the o being prefixed in the native language to nouns in the nominative case. Mai is the name of the present king of Borabora, though I am not certain of his having descended from the same family. The Mai who accompanied Captain Furneux does not appear to have been connected by birth or rank with the regal or sacerdotal class, although, among other accounts circulated respecting him while in England, it was stated that he was a priest of the sun, an office and title unknown in his native islands. He represented himself as a hoa, friend or attendant, on the king. In person he was tall and thin, easy and engaging in his manners, and polite in his address; but in symmetry of form, expression of countenance, general outline of feature, and darkness of complexion, inferior to the majority of his countrymen. His conversation was said to be lively and facetious. He reached England when the interest of Captain Cook's

« PrécédentContinuer »