108 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
prepossessing in the interior of the Royal Mission 
Chapel; and its length is so very disproportioned to 
its width and elevation^ that the exterior is neither 
elegant nor imposing; and although it breaks the uni¬ 
formity and loneliness of the landscape, it can hardly be 
said that its introduction has been an improvement. 
Pomare, however, appeared to experience great satisfac¬ 
tion in superintending its erection, and in marking its 
progress. He was present, surrounded by not fewer 
than seven thousand of his subjects, when it was for the 
first time appropriated to the sacred purpose for which 
it had been built, and his feelings on that occasion were, 
no doubt, of a superior and delightful kind—very different 
from those of his predecessors in the government of 
Tahiti, and especially of his father; who, when the 
Missionaries built their little chapel at Matavai, for which 
he had furnished the timber, sent a large fish, requesting 
it might be suspended in the temple of the God of Bri¬ 
tain, that he might share his favour, and secure his aid, 
as well as that of the gods of Tahiti. 
The first places of worship erected by the natives, 
after the subversion of idolatry, were comparatively 
small in size, and differed but little from the common 
native houses, excepting in the manner in which the 
interior was fitted up. This was generally done by 
fixing benches from one end to the other, and erecting 
a kind of desk or table equally distant from both extremi¬ 
ties, and near one of the sides. These chapels were for¬ 
merly numerous, and the inhabitants of each district had 
their own fare hure^ or house of prayer, in which they 
were accustomed, even in the most remote part of the 
island, to assemble regularly twice on the Sabbath, and 
once during the week, for reading the scriptures and 
