PROGRESS OF ARCHITECTURE. 349 
the houses occupied by their proprietors. Some 
appeared with only the walls on the outside plas¬ 
tered, others with both sides plastered; some having 
their doors and window-shutters fixed, others with a 
low fence only across the door-way; some with grass 
spread over the whole floor, while others had a por¬ 
tion boarded sufficiently large to contain their sleep¬ 
ing-mats at night. A few, whose dwellings were 
completely finished, inhabited them with all the con¬ 
scious satisfaction attending the enjoyment of what 
had cost them great and persevering labour. All 
confessed that the new kind of houses were better 
than the old ; that when the weather was warm, 
they could have as much air as was agreeable ; 
and when the night was cold and the wind high, 
or the rain drifting, they had not, as formerly, to 
rise and move their beds, or secure their clothing 
from wet, but could sleep on, sheltered from the 
elements without. 
This was the state of the settlement in Huahine 
when visited by Captain Gambier, of H. M. ship 
Dauntless, Captain Elliot, and other naval officers, 
whom I had the pleasure of meeting there. The 
account of the settlement given by the former, and 
the emotions excited in his own mind by his visit, 
are so interesting, that I think it would be almost 
unjust to deprive the readers of these pages of the 
satisfaction his description is adapted to afford. 
In reference to Tahiti, and the change generally, 
Captain Gambier observes, “ The testimony is a 
strong one : as I had never felt any interest in the 
labours of Missionaries, I was not only not pre¬ 
possessed in favour of them, but I was in a mea¬ 
sure suspicious of their reports. It will appear as 
clear as light to the spiritual mind, that the 
account of their state, and the gratification expe- 
