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POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
sure had produced. When they beheld the letters black, 
and large, and well defined, there was one simultaneous 
expression of wonder and delight. 
The king took up the sheet, and having looked first at 
the paper and then at the types with attentive admira¬ 
tion, handed it to one of his chiefs, and expressed a 
wish to take another. He printed two more; and, 
while he was so engaged, the first sheet was shewn to 
the crowd without, who, when they saw it, raised one 
general shout of astonishment and joy. When the king 
had printed three or four sheets, he examined the press in 
all its parts with great attention^ On being asked what 
he thought of it, he said it was very surprising ; but that 
he had supposed, notwithstanding all the descriptions 
which had been given of its operation, that the paper 
was laid down, and the letters by some means pressed 
upon it, instead of the paper being pressed upon the 
types. He remained attentively watching the press, 
and admiring the facility with which, by its mechanism, 
so many pages were printed at one time, until it was 
near sunset, when he left us ; taking with him the sheets 
he had printed, to his encampment on the opposite side 
of the bay. 
When the benefits which the Tahitians have already 
derived from education, and the circulation of books, 
are considered, with the increasing advantages which 
it is presumed future generations will derive from the 
establishment of the press, we cannot but view the 
introduction of printing as an auspicious event. The 
30th of June 1817^ was, on this account, an important 
day in the annals of Tahiti; and there is no act of 
Pomare’s life, excepting his abolition of idolatry, his cle¬ 
mency after the battle of Bunaina, and his devotedness 
