POLYNESIflN RESEARCHES. .163 
themselves pleased with the prospect of such an events 
and promised every assistance in the erection of our houses, 
&c. Having accomplished the object of our visit, we 
left Afareaitu, and returned to Papetoai the same evening. 
The circumstances of the inhabitants of the wind¬ 
ward and leeward islands, most of whom had renounced 
idolatry, and their earnest desire to receive religious 
instruction, rendered it exceedingly desirable, that the 
Missionaries should no longer remain altogether at Pa¬ 
petoai, but establish themselves in the different islands; 
but the vessel which they had commenced building in 
1813, being still unfinished, and the anticipation of a con¬ 
siderable accession to their numbers, induced them to 
defer forming any new station, until such reinforcement 
should arrive. 
The natives in the several islands were in want, not 
only of teachers, but also of books. I had taken out a 
printing-press and types, and having, at the request of 
the Directors, learned the art of printing in England, 
it was proposed, that as a temporary measure, to supply 
the existing demand for books, the press should be 
set up at Afareaitu. By this arrangement .two. stations 
would be formed in Eimeo, and the whole of the inhabi¬ 
tants be brought more fully under religious instruction. 
In order to carry these plans into effect, we left Papetoai 
on the 25th of March, with Mr. Davies, Mr. and Mrs. 
Crook and family. Mrs. Ellis, and myself, with an 
infant and her nurse, set out in a native canoe, having 
most of our goods and luggage on board. Mr. Crook and 
family preceded us in a fine large double canoe, called 
^^Tiaitoerau” literally wait for the west wind,’' from 
tiai to wait, and toerau west wind. It was between 
thirty and forty feet in length, very strong, and, as a 
