POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
99 
I naturally inferred that the house was appropriated 
to purposes of secret devotion; and meeting its pro- 
prietor, I asked its use. He informed me that it was 
devoted to that object^ and spoke with apparent satis¬ 
faction of the happiness he enjoyed in the retirement 
it afforded. 
The erection of their dwelling, culture of their garden, 
building the house for hidden prayer, &c. (the labours 
of the present proprietors of Beritani,) are very different 
from the erection of a boarded house merely as a for¬ 
tress, in which are deposited, as the most valued trea¬ 
sures of its inhabitant, arms and ammunition. It does 
not appear that Mai’s house was designed as a model 
by which the natives were to be encouraged to build 
their own, but a place of security for the property, 
which he was recommended to enclose with a spacious 
native building : and the pursuits of its present occu¬ 
pants are in delightful contrast with the childish exhi¬ 
bition of fireworks, or the display of those trinkets, by 
which it was endeavoured to impress the minds of the 
natives with ideas of English superiority over untu¬ 
tored barbarians. The events which have since tran¬ 
spired were but little anticipated by the distinguished 
navigator, who conducted this simple-hearted native 
from one end of the globe to the other, spared no 
pains to promote his welfare and comfort, and who, 
although mistaken in the means he employed, undoubt¬ 
edly aimed at the prosperity of the interesting people 
whom he had introduced to the notice of the civilized 
world. 
Visiting almost daily the spot, and living in habits 
of intercourse with the successors of Mai, I have been 
often led to compare the views and circumstances of 
