POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
65 
consistent profession of Christianity^ and the best means 
of counteracting that inveterate love of indolence to 
which from infancy they had been accustomed. Habits 
of application were also essential to the cultivation and 
enlargement of intellect^ the increase of knowledge, 
and enjoyment in every department and every period 
of the present life. This was peculiarly desirable in 
reference to the rising generation, who were to be the 
future population, and who would arrive at years of 
maturity, under circumstances and principles as oppo¬ 
site as light and darkness to those under which their 
parents had been reared. Under these impressions, 
those who were stationed in the Leeward Islands, next 
to the attention they paid to religious instruction, 
directed their attention to the advancement of civiliza¬ 
tion among the people, and the improvement of their 
temporal condition. We had already persuaded them to 
extend the culture of the soil beyond the growth of the 
articles necessary for their support during the season 
when the bread-fruit yielded no supply, and to raise 
cotton and productions, which they might exchange 
for clothing, tools, &c. We now directed them to the 
improvement of their dwellings, which, generally speak¬ 
ing, were temporary sheds, or wide unpartitioned build¬ 
ings, by no means favourable to domestic comfort or 
Christian decency. 
When we landed at Fare in Huahine, I do not think 
there were more than ten or twelve houses in the whole 
district. Four, besides those we occupied, were of con¬ 
siderable size, belonging to the chiefs ; the others were 
mere huts. In the latter, the inmates took their food, 
and rested upon their mats spread upon the floor, 
which, had it been simply of earth, would have been 
II. K 
