260 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
most important services. He was well acquainted 
with the language, usages, and ancient institutions 
of the people, and his corrections were usually 
made with judgment and care. The compilation 
of a dictionary of the Tahitian language, would, if 
completed, have been invaluable; but he had 
scarcely commenced it systematically, when death 
arrested his progress, even in the prime of life. 
Pomare was succeeded in the government by his 
son, who being proclaimed king immediately after 
his father’s death, was crowned, under the title of 
Pomare III. on the 21st of April, 1824. 
In order that the ceremonies, on this occa¬ 
sion, might be performed in the presence of the 
inhabitants, the greater part of whom were ex¬ 
pected to attend, a stone platform was raised, 
nearly sixty feet square, upon which another 
smaller platform was erected, where the coronation 
was to take place. 
When the order of the procession was arranged, 
it advanced towards the place, preceded by two 
native girls, who strewed the path with flowers. 
Mahine, the chief of Huahine, and nominally one 
of the judges of Tahiti, carried a large Bible, and 
was attended by the deputation from the Mission¬ 
ary Society, who were then at Tahiti, and Messrs. 
Nott and Henry; the rest of the Missionaries fol¬ 
lowed. Then came the supreme judges, three 
abreast ; Utami, the chief of Atehuru, bearing a 
copy of the Tahitian code of laws. Three other 
judges followed; and Tati, the chief of Papara, 
walking in the centre, carried the crown. The 
young king, seated on a chair, was next borne in 
the procession by four young chieftains, an equal 
number of chiefs’ sons supporting the canopy over 
his head; his mother and his sister walking on 
