382 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
Royal Mission Chapel; and its length is so very 
disproportioned to its width and elevation, that 
the exterior is neither elegant nor imposing ; and 
although it breaks the uniformity and loneliness of 
the landscape, it can hardly be said that its intro¬ 
duction has been an improvement. Pomare, how¬ 
ever, appeared to experience great satisfaction in 
superintending its erection, and in marking its 
progress. He was present, surrounded by not 
fewer than seven thousand of his subjects, when it 
was for the first time appropriated to the sacred 
purpose for which it had been built, and his feel¬ 
ings on that occasion were, no doubt, of a superior 
and delightful kind—very different from those of 
his predecessors in the government of Tahiti, and 
especially of his father, who, when the Mission¬ 
aries built their little chapel at Matavai, for which 
he had furnished the timber, sent a large fish, 
requesting it might be suspended in the temple of 
the God of Britain, that he might share his favour, 
and secure his aid, as well as that of the gods of 
Tahiti. 
The first places of worship erected by the 
natives, after the subversion of idolatry, were com¬ 
paratively small in size, and differed but little from 
the common native houses, excepting in the man¬ 
ner in which the interior was fitted up. This was 
generally done by fixing benches from one end to 
the other, and erecting a kind of desk or table 
equally distant from both extremities, and near 
one of the sides. These chapels were formerly 
numerous, and the inhabitants of each district had 
their own fare bure , or house of prayer, in which 
they were accustomed to assemble twice on the 
Sabbath, and once during the week, for reading 
the scriptures and prayer. Such was the rapidity 
