270 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
regulations of the society were then read, and the 
treasurer and secretaries chosen. By this time the 
shades of the evening began to gather round us, 
and the sun was just hidden by the distant wave of 
the horizon, when the king rose from his chair, 
and the chiefs and people retired to their dwell- 
ings, under feelings of excitement and _satis- 
faction. There was so much rural beauty and 
secluded quietude in the scene, and so much that 
was novel and striking in the appearance of the 
people, momentous and delightful in the object 
for which they had been convened, that it was 
altogether an interesting meeting. 
Mahine, and the Leeward or Society Island 
chiefs, “alae had been present at the formation of 
the Tahitian Missionary Society, were desirous 
that Huahine, although it had not been equally 
favoured with facilities for receiving the gospel, 
should not be behind any of the Windward group 
in the efforts of its inhabitants to sustain and to 
propagate it. In a few months after their arrival, 
therefore, they proposed that a society, upon the 
plan of that established in Eimeo, should be 
formed in Huahine, in aid of the parent society in 
London. We were anxious to aid in the accom- 
plishment of their design; and a day was fixed, 
on which a public meeting was to be held for its 
formation. In the forenoon of the 6th of October, 
1818, Mahine, and the Missionaries of Huahine, 
Tamatoa, and those of Raiatea, Mai, and numbers 
from Borabora, repaired to the chapel, followed by 
crowds of the people. The place was soon filed, 
and a far greater number remained outside than 
were assembled under the roof. In order that as 
many as possible might hear, directions were given 
to take down one of the ends of the house; this 
