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POLYNESIAN - RESEARCHES. 
industry, and defraying to a certain degree the expenses 
of the Mission. Such were the views with which the 
building of the vessel was undertaken | hut circumstances 
had arisen since that time, which left hut little hope 
that these ends would ever be answered. The work was, 
however, already so far advanced, that all parties were 
unwilling to abandon it. 
The vessel was about seventy tons burden, and the 
hull was nearly completed. The Missionaries who had 
arrived undertook to complete what their predecessors 
had commenced I and although it was an undertaking 
of great labour, it was ready to be launched in a few 
weeks after they had landed. 
The of December, 1817^ being the day fixed 
for the launch, crowds of the inhabitants assembled 
to witness the spectacle: when the preparations were 
completed, the wedges were removed; hut as the vessel 
did not move, strong ropes were passed round her stern, 
and a number of the natives on each side began pulling 
her towards the water. Pomare was present, and 
exerted all his influence to stimulate the natives em¬ 
ployed in launching the ship. One of the king's 
orators, a short, plump, round-faced man, about fifty 
years of age, was perched upon a projecting rock by 
the sea-side, vociferating one_ of their ubus, or songs, 
on the launching of their own large canoes, suiting 
the action to the word, and using at times the most 
violent gesticulations, as if he imagined his own muscular 
powers alone were to move the vessel. They have a 
number of these kind of songs, some of considerable 
length, which I have at different times written down. 
They were designed to stimulate the men who were 
drawing the canoes into the water. ^ 
