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POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
gardens attached to the native houses^ it was pleasing 
to see the little fare hure Jmna, house for hidden prayer. 
The greater part of the Missionaries, who had fled to 
Port Jackson, when expelled from Tahiti in 1808, having 
been invited by Pomare, returned in 1812. In 1816 
they were joined by Mr. Crook, who had been stationed 
by Captain Wilson in the Marquesas : they had visited 
Tahiti, for the purpose of preaching to the inhabitants, 
but they had not been able to re-establish the Mission 
in their original station, and were, consequently, all 
residing at Eimeo when we arrived. 
The chiefs of the district, and island, soon visited us, 
received a few articles as presents, and appeared highly 
gratified with what they saw, especially with some 
engravings of natural history. They sent us a present 
of food; or, as they call it, faaamuaf a feeding; con¬ 
sisting of two or three large pigs, which were dragged 
along by force, squalling terribly all the way, and tied 
to a stick near the door^ a number of bunches of 
plantains, bananas, cocoa-nuts, and bread-fruit, were also 
brought, and piled up in three heaps on the sand, near 
the pigs. I was then called out, and a native repeated 
the names of the chiefs who had sent us the food; and, 
pointing to the heaps of fruit and the pigs, said one was 
for me, and another for Mrs. Ellis, and the third for 
our infant daughter. He then directed the native 
servants of the house to take care of it, and departed. 
Soon after my arrival, I visited the school, and was 
greatly delighted to behold numbers of adults, as well 
as children, under the direction of Messrs. Davies and 
Tessier, learning their alphabet and their spelling, or 
reading with distinctness their lessons, which were 
principally extracts from Scripture. 
