FL14425349

[MS 249]

It is to be ornamented in the highest degree
according to the manner of these Islands,
which ornamentary will consist chiefly of
matting of different colours. From what
I hve said about this Building you will be
apt to form too exalted an idea of it.
you must not picture to yourself a
Building of Regular Magnitude, If I my so
speak, & real elegance; for its Breadth
& Height bear no proper proportion to
its Length, for it is more like a Barrack,
when viewed at a distance, than a Church.
Its Roof is of the same kind of Thatch that
the houses are covered with in general,
which is made of the Leaves of a kind
of Palm-tree, and looks very neat
particularly in the inside; and its walls
are of thick plan, closely jointed. Its
pillars, and Rafters are the parts of it
that are most ornamented: but I cannot
give you a particular description of it
as I have not seen it since its Frame
was put up; this however, I may do at
a future time. These people
as a Nation having "Changed their gods,"
and being professedly Christian & worshipers
of the True God for nearly two years, and
not one of them as yet baptised, is
a state of things not paralelled in the History
of the Christian church. That none have
been yet baptised is owing to some Peculiar
Circumstances. I cannot now stand to specify.