202 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
with us at Huahine, subsequently became my 
fellow-labourer in the Sandwich Islands, and was, 
when I last heard from the islands, about to be 
ordained pastor of a Christian church in Sir Charles 
Sander’s Island. 
At a late hour we retired to rest, but not to 
sleep. We needed and sought repose, but the 
incidents of the day had produced a degree of ex¬ 
citement that did not speedily subside; in addition 
to which, the constant and loud roaring of the surf 
kept us awake till nearly daybreak. The house in 
which we lodged was near the shore; and the long 
heavy billows of the sea rolling in successive surges 
over the coral reefs that surround the island, kept 
up, through the night, a hollow and heavy sound, 
resembling that produced by the rumbling of car¬ 
riages in a vast city, heard at a distance in the 
stillness of evening. The wall, or outside of the 
dwelling, was composed only of large sticks, or 
poles, placed perpendicularly from the floor to the 
roof, two or three inches apart, so that we could 
see the ocean on one side, and the dark outline of 
the inland mountains on the other; while looking 
up through the roof, which was, in this respect, 
like Ossian’s ghost, we discerned the stars twink¬ 
ling in a blue and cloudless sky. We did not, 
however, feel the air too cool; and our lodging 
was quite as good as that in which the Missionaries 
to the Sandwich Islands passed their first night in 
Honoruru; and much better than Mr. Marsden, 
and his companion, procured in New Zealand. 
The first night he passed on shore, he slept on the 
earthen floor, by the side of a warrior, the mur¬ 
derer of the crew of the Boyd, and a cannibal; 
and the spot on which he lay was encircled by 
native spears fixed in the ground. 
