POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
83 
sea, and, raising it four or five feet above high-water 
mark, covered it with smooth flat stones, and then 
erected their houses upon the spot they had thus 
recovered from the sea, by which it v/as on three sides 
surrounded. The labour required for effecting this, 
prevented any but chiefs from building in such situations. 
Others, actually building upon the sand, erected their 
dwelling upon the upper edge of the beach, within four 
or five yards of the rising tidg. 
The public road, from six to twelve feet wide, which 
led through the district, extending in a line parallel with 
the coast, presented all its curvatures. Some of the 
natives built their houses facing the sea; others, turning 
their fronts towards the mountain, reared them within 
five or six feet of the road; while several, of a more 
retiring disposition, built in the centre of their planta¬ 
tions, or under the embowering shade of a grove of 
bread-fruit trees, enclosing them within the fence that 
surrounded their dwelling. Some of the leading chiefs, 
in order to enjoy a more extensive prospect, and to 
breathe a purer atmosphere, left the humidity and shade 
of the lowland and the valley, and built their houses on 
the sides of the verdant hills that rise immediately 
behind the bay, and form the connecting link between 
the rocks around the beach and the high mountains of 
the interior. 
A settlement thus formed could never possess any 
approximation to uniformity; and although we had 
endeavoured to persuade the people to render it more 
regular, yet it often seemed as if the variety in size 
and shape among the buildings, and the irregularity of 
their situation, was in perfect keeping with the wild, 
untrained luxuriant loveliness, and romantic appearance. 
