PROGRESS OF ARCHITECTURE. 353 
bending with ripened fruit. The process which 
effects the changes marking the progress from 
birth to maturity in the animal creation, is not loss 
curious; and at this time we beheld a work ad¬ 
vancing, which was rapidly transforming the cha¬ 
racter and habits of a nation, and materially alter¬ 
ing even the aspect of the habitable portions of 
their country. This gave a peculiar interest to 
the nondescript sort of dwelling, half native hut, 
and half European cottage, which many of the 
people at this time inhabited. They marked the 
steps, and developed the process, by which they 
were rising from the rude and cheerless degra¬ 
dation of the one, to the elevation and enjoyment 
of the other. These sensations were often height¬ 
ened by our beholding, in the neighbourhood of 
these half-finished houses, the lonely and comfort¬ 
less hut they had abandoned, and the neatly 
finished cottage in which the inmates enjoyed a 
degree of comfort, that, to use their own powerful 
expression, made them sometimes ready to doubt 
whether they were the same people who had been 
contented to inhabit their former dwellings, sur¬ 
rounded by pigs and dogs, and swarms of vermin, 
while the wind blew over them, and the rain beat 
upon them. 
The greater number of houses, already erected, 
contain only two or three rooms on one floor, but 
several of the chiefs have built spacious, and, con¬ 
sidering the materials with which they are con¬ 
structed, substantial habitations, with two stories, 
and a number of rooms in each, having also some 
of the windows glazed. Mahine, the king of 
Huahine, was, we believe, the first native of the 
South Sea Islands, who finished a house with 
upper rooms. When done, it was quite a curiosity 
n 2 a 
