110YAL MISSION CHAPEL. 
377 
ingress and egress to the congregation. The build¬ 
ing was covered with the leaves of the pandanus, 
enclosed with a strong and neat, low aumoa , or 
boarded fence ; and the area within the enclosure 
was filled with basaltic pebbles, or broken coral. 
The roof was too low, and the width and eleva¬ 
tion of the building too disproportioned to its 
length, to allow of its appearing either stupendous 
or magnificent. 
The interior was at once singular and striking. 
The bottom was covered, in the native fashion, with 
long grass, and, with the exception of a small 
space around each pulpit, was filled with plain, 
but substantial forms or benches. The rafters 
were bound with braided cord, coloured in native 
dyes, or covered nearly to the top of the roof with 
finely woven matting, made of the white bark 
of the purau, or hibiscus, and often presenting 
a chequered mixture of opposite colours, by no 
means unpleasing to the eye. The end of the 
matting usually hung down from the upper part of 
the rafter three, six, or nine feet, and terminated 
in a fine broad fringe or border. 
The most singular circumstance, however, con¬ 
nected with the interior of the Royal Mission 
Chapel, is the number of pulpits. There are no 
fewer than three. They are nearly two hundred 
and sixty feet apart, but without any partition 
between. The east and west pulpits are about a 
hundred feet from the corresponding extremities of 
the chapel. They are substantially built, and 
though destitute of any thing very elegant in 
shape or execution, answer exceedingly well the 
purpose for which they were erected. 
This immense building was opened for divine 
service on the 11th of May, 1819, when the en- 
