POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
71 
in hand at the same time^ and the periods of their com¬ 
pletion were probably not very remote from each other. 
A new order of architecture was thus introduced to 
the nation, and the names of Tamatoa, king of Raiatea, 
and of Navenavehia, the more humble chief in Hua- 
hine, ought not to be forgotten, in connexion with the 
introduction of a style of building which has since 
prevailed so extensively among the people, greatly aug¬ 
menting their social and domestic comforts, changing 
the appearance of their villages, and improving the 
beautiful scenery of their islands. 
These two houses were not only the first in the Lee¬ 
ward group, but they were the first of the kind ever 
erected, for their own abode, by any of the natives of the 
South Sea Islands. 
The success of these individuals encouraged others, 
although we found great difficulty in persuading them 
to persevere in the heavy labour this improvement 
required, particularly as they were now actively em¬ 
ployed in the erection of a spacious chapel, and the 
frames of our dwellings. It was no easy task for them 
to build houses of this kind^ there were no regular 
carpenters and masons. Every man had, in the first- 
place, to go to the woods or the mountains, and cut down 
trees for timber, trim them into posts, &c. and remove 
them to the spot where his house was to be built, then 
to erect the frame, with the doorway and windows. 
This being done, he must again repair to the woods for 
long branches of hibiscus for rafters, with which he 
framed the roof. 
The leaves of the pandanus were next gathered, and 
soaked, and sewed on reeds, with which the roof was 
thatched. This formerly would have completed his 
