NATIVE MISSIONS. 
271 
was soon done; so that those who could not gain 
admission, were enabled to hear. 
Temporary verandas or coverings of cocoa-nut 
leaves had been attached to the side of the house 
next the sea, widening it five or six feet, and on 
the other side it was also thrown open. A sermon 
was preached in the forenoon, and in the afternoon 
the people were addressed by Mahine, Taua, and 
other leading chiefs, on the advantages they had 
derived from the gospel, the destitute state of 
those who had not received it, and the obligation 
they were under to send it; proposing, at the 
same time, that each person, so disposed, should 
annually prepare a small quantity of cocoa-nut 
oil, which should be collected, sent to England, 
and sold, to aid the Society, which had sent 
teachers to Tahiti, in sending them to other 
nations. 
Those who had been at Eimeo, and many of 
the inhabitants of Huahine, appeared interested in 
the details that were given of the condition of 
other parts of the world, and the efforts that had 
been made by Christians in England to send them 
the means of instruction. The presence of the 
chiefs of the different islands, with numbers of 
their people, the former devotees of their re¬ 
spective national idols, and the adherents of the 
different political parties, who had often within 
the last twenty years met for battle on the 
shores of Huahine or Raiatea, together with the 
novelty of the object, and the excitement of feeling 
which such a concourse of people necessarily pro¬ 
duced, rendered the meeting exceedingly inte¬ 
resting, though to us it was less so than one sub¬ 
sequently held in Fare, and that which we had 
attended in Eimeo. 
