POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
309 
Davies preached in the forenoon^ from Luke xxii. 19. 
In front of the pulpit^ a neat table, covered vrith white 
native cloth, was fixed, upon which the sacramental 
vessels were placed. These had been furnished from 
England. Wheaten bread was an article of diet that 
we did not very often obtain ourselves, and which the 
people seldom tasted: we should have preferred it for 
this ordinance, yet, as we could not, from the irre¬ 
gularity and uncertainty of our supplies at that 
period, expect always to have it, we deemed it better to 
employ an article of food as nearly resembling it as pos¬ 
sible, and which was at all times procurable. From 
these considerations, we felt no hesitation in using, on 
this occasion, the roasted or baked bread-fruit, pieces of 
which were placed on the proper vessel. 
Wine, we were also thankful to possess for this pur¬ 
pose ; and although we have sometimes been apprehen¬ 
sive that we might be under the necessity of substituting 
the juice of the cocoa-nut for that of the grape, or dis¬ 
continuing the observance of this ordinance, (to which 
latter painful alternative, some of our brethren have been 
reduced,) we have been providentially favoured with a 
sufficiency. Over the elements placed on the table, a 
beautifully white cloth had been spread, before the accus¬ 
tomed service began. When this was over, although it 
was intimated that any who wished might retire, no one 
left the chapel. Mr. Davies, the senior Missionary or 
pastor of the church, took his station behind the com¬ 
munion-table ; Mr. Barff sat at one end, and I took my 
seat at the other. 
When the communicants had seated themselves in a 
line in front, we sang a hymn. The words of institution, 
viz. passages of Scripture containing the directions for 
