POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
393 
ner, and the few monosyllables composing the first 
page of the small spelling-book were afterwards add¬ 
ed. He was delighted when he saw the first page 
complete, and appeared desirous to have it struck 
olf at once; but when informed that it would not 
be printed till as many were composed as would 
fill a sheet, he requested that he might be sent for 
whenever it was ready. He visited us almost daily 
until the 30th, when, having received intimation that 
it was ready for the press, he came, attended by only 
two of his favourite chiefs. They were, however, 
followed by a numerous train of his attendants, &c. 
who had by some means heard that the work was about 
to commence. Crowds of the natives were already 
collected around the door, but they made way for him, 
and, after he and his two companions had been admitted, 
the door was closed, and the small window next the 
sea darkened, as he did not wish to be overlooked by 
the people on the outside. The king examined, with 
great minuteness and pleasure, the form as it lay on 
the press, and prepared to try to take off the first sheet 
ever printed in his dominions. Having been told how 
it was to be done, he jocosely charged his companions 
not to look very particularly at him, and not to laugh 
if he should not do it right. I put the printer’s ink- 
ball into his hand, and directed him to strike it two or 
three times upon the face of the letters; this he did, 
and then placing a sheet of clean paper upon the parch¬ 
ment, I covered it down, and, turning it under the press, 
directed the king to pull the handle. He did so, and 
when the paper was removed from beneath the press, 
and the covering lifted up, the chiefs and attendants 
rushed towards it, to see what effect the king’s pres- 
3 R 
