68 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
evangelical language in prayer. During the con 
versation of the evening, he expressed a desire, 
which has since been gratified, that a Missionary 
might reside in his neighbourhood, that he and 
his people might be instructed in the word of God ; 
might learn to read and write, and become ac¬ 
quainted with what the Missionaries were teaching 
at the stations where they dwelt. He is about 
fifty years of age, and regretted exceedingly, as 
many others have also done, that he was so far 
advanced in life before the Missionaries arrived at 
the islands. The Sabbath passed away pleasantly, 
and, it is hoped, profitably, both to the interesting 
inhabitants of the place, and their guests; and 
the latter retired to rest, animated and encouraged 
by what they had that day witnessed. Early next 
morning they set out for Kairua, where they ar¬ 
rived about nine o’clock in the forenoon. 
Hard and closely embedded lava rendered the 
sinking of the well difficult; and, unable to pro¬ 
ceed for want of proper instruments with which to 
drill the rocks, the greater part of this day was 
spent in ascertaining the population of Kairua. 
Numbering the houses for one mile along the 
coast, they found them to be 529 ; and allowing 
an average of five persons to each house, the inha¬ 
bitants in Kairua will amount to 2645 persons. 
This certainly does not exceed the actual popula¬ 
tion, as few of the houses are small, and many of 
them large, containing two or three families each. 
The varied and strongly marked volcanic sur¬ 
face of the higher parts of the mountain called 
Mouna Huararai , in the immediate neighbour¬ 
hood of Kairua; the traditional accounts given by 
the natives, of the eruptions, which, from craters 
on its summit, had in different ages deluged the 
