348 
POLYNESIAN RES'EAilCflES. 
the inhabitants of Maatea, agreed to put up the frame of 
my dwelling-house. The acquisition of the language I 
commenced with Mr. Crook^ and was happy to avail 
myself of the aid of Mr. Davies, who was well acquainted 
with it, and willing to render us every assistance which 
his other avocations would admit. 
The natives of Afareaitu, and of the neighbouring 
districts, were rejoiced at our coming among them; they 
seemed a people predisposed to receive instruction. 
A spacious chapel was erected prior to our arrival, and 
a large school was subsequently built; multitudes from 
other parts of the island took up their abode in the 
settlement, the school was filled with scholars, and the 
chapel well attended. 
The indigenous productions of the island were abun¬ 
dant in the neighbourhood, and were comparatively 
cheap, as this part of the island had been but little 
visited by foreigners. When the flour, and other 
foreign articles of provision which we had brought from 
Port Jackson, were nearly expended, we subsisted almost 
entirely on native food; and though most of it was 
rather unsavoury at first, it afterwards became tolerably 
palatable. Wheat is not grown in any of the islands ; it 
has often been tried, but, either from the heat of the climate, 
the exceeding fertility of the soil, or the absence of regular 
seasons, it has always failed. No other kind of grain, 
with the exception of a small quantity of maize, or Indian 
corn, is cultivated. Flour is, consequently, now only to 
be obtained from the vessels visiting the islands. It is, 
however, frequently brought from New South Wales, and 
from South or North America, and a tolerably good supply 
may, in general, be regularly obtained. The European 
is thus enabled to procure bread; which, amid all the 
