80 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
the whole of the Leeward Islands, the superin¬ 
tendence of the schools, promoting the civilization 
of the people, attending the religious meetings 
together with our pastoral duties, now pressed so 
heavily upon us, that we found some assistance 
requisite. This we necessarily sought among the 
converts, and were happy to find four persons, 
members of the church, suitable to act as assist¬ 
ants, whom we proposed to the church to elect as 
deacons. Diaconi is the term by which they are 
designated ; not, however, selected from any strong 
predilection to the term, or any extraordinary im¬ 
portance attached to it, but because a scriptural 
term, and one more easily assimilated to the idiom 
of their language than some others. 
On the 15th of February, 1821, they were set 
apart in the church to this office, by an address 
from 1 Tim. iii. 10. and prayer for the blessing 
of God upon them. Auna, Taua, Pohuetea, and 
Matatore, were the persons selected, and so long 
as I continued in the islands, we found them 
consistent Christians, and valuable coadjutors in 
managing the temporal concerns of the church, 
visiting the sick, attending the prayer-meet¬ 
ings, &c. 
Religion was now almost the sole business of 
the people at Fare, and the adjacent districts; 
and although the meetings were frequent, many 
continued to visit our dwellings, sometimes by day¬ 
break ; and often, after we had retired to rest at 
night, one or two would come knocking gently at 
our doors or windows, begging us to give them 
directions, or to answer their inquiries as to the 
thoughts that distressed their minds. No time, no 
place, appeared to them unappropriate ; and whe¬ 
ther they sat in the house, or walked by the way 
