burder’s point. 
153 
finished ; some were plastered and thatched ; and 
others, though only in frame, and presenting the 
appearance of mere skeletons of buildings, indi¬ 
cated a state of progressive improvement. The 
public burying-ground, situated on the border of 
the settlement, was kept remarkably neat. The 
outline of the grave was defended by a curb, or 
border, of fragments of coral planted in the 
ground, while the grave itself was covered with 
small pieces of white coral and shells, brought 
from the adjacent shore. The school was a good 
building; and the chapel, erected near the ruins 
of the ancient marae, which I visited during my 
stay, was one of the most compact I had seen in 
the Georgian or Society Islands. The walls were 
framed and boarded ; the roof thatched with fara , 
or palm-leaves. The floor was boarded, the pulpit 
and appendages remarkably neat, and the whole 
area of the chapel filled with seats. It was also 
fitted up with a gallery, the first ever erected in 
the South Sea Islands; the gallery, and other 
parts of the interior, having been finished under 
the direction and by the assistance of Mr. Darling, 
were neater, and more European in appearance, 
than any I had hitherto beheld. 
The advancement in civilization had not, however, 
been so striking or rapid at this station as at some 
others; but the effects of its progress were such as 
to afford encouragement, and to warrant the anti¬ 
cipation of its ultimately extending throughout 
the entire population of a district that had felt the 
ravages of war, and the demoralization of paganism, 
as much as any in the group. 
About ten in the morning of the 21st we took 
leave of our friends at Burder’s Point, and, after 
rowing about four hours between the reefs and the 
