POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
327 
directed to call upon the parties at their habitations, to 
converse with them, and report the same at the next 
meeting, for the satisfaction of the church. It was re¬ 
garded by us a duty, to see these persons more than once 
during the intervening month. 
At the next meeting, these individuals were proposed 
by name; the recommendation of the persons who had 
visited them, and of the Missionary, given; and if the 
members present knew any reasons why they should 
not be united with them, they were requested to state 
the same ; if not, to signify assent by lifting up the right 
hand. When the members proposed had been thus in¬ 
dividually approved, as they were usually in attendance, 
they were brought to the chapel, and interrogated singly, 
as to their reasons for desiring to unite with us. To 
these questions brief replies were usually rendered ; and 
they were informed that the members of the church, con¬ 
sidering them proper persons, were happy to receive 
them. The right-hand of fellowship was then given by 
the Missionaries, and subsequently by the members, to 
those thus received; and the meeting closed with devo¬ 
tional exercises. 
We did not require any written confession of faith, 
nor invariably a verbal account of experience, from the 
persons admitted. In this latter respect, our procedure 
was not uniform, but regulated by the peculiar circum¬ 
stances of the individual. 
Towards the close of the year 1820, Mr. Davies left 
Fare, to supply the station at Papara, in Tahiti, which 
had been destitute of a Missionary since the decease of 
Messrs. Tessier and Bicknell. The management of the 
press, supplying the books for the whole of the Leeward 
Islands, the superintendence of the schools, promoting 
