POLYNEJSIAN RESEARCOES. 
437 
the same hour. The forenoon was appropriated to wor¬ 
ship in English; at which time a sermon was preach¬ 
ed by Mr. Henry^ one of the senior Missionaries ; and in 
the afternoon the services were entirely in the native 
language. 
The chiefs and people assembled from most of the 
districts of Eimeo^ and a number of strangers from 
Tahiti^ residing at Papetoai, were also present. The 
extension of the Redeemer’s kingdom had been the 
topic of discourses in the native congregation on the 
preceding Sabbath^ and had in some degree prepared 
the minds of the people for entering more fully into the 
subject. The public services on this occasion were to 
commence at three o’clock in the afternoon; but long 
before the appointed hour, the chapel was crowded, 
and a far greater number than had gained admis¬ 
sion, still remained on the outside. 
Three or four hundred yards distant from the 
chapel, there was a beautiful and extensive grove. To 
this spot it was proposed to adjourn, and thither the 
natives immediately repaired, seating themselves on the 
ground under the cocoa-nut trees. At three o’clock we 
walked to the grove, and on entering it we beheld one of 
the most imposing and delightful spectacles I think 
I ever witnessed in the islands. The sky was clear, 
the smooth surface of the ocean rippled with the cool 
and stirring breeze. The grove, stately and rich in all 
the luxuriance of tro|)ical verdure, extended from the 
white beach of coral and shells to the very base of the 
mountains, whose gradual ascent, and rocky projections, 
led to the interior. The long-winged and interwoven 
leaves of the trees formed a spreading canopy, through 
which a straggling sunbeam occasionally found its way, 
