The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-08-09
Tahiti and Hawaii Seventy Years Ago.

Oahu, Kauai and Hawaii, and his return to the
Society Islands, we notice particularly the following
passages
Speaking of his visit to the most leeward of the
Society Group, which he calls " Mana or MObidie,'
(page y he says During our short stay among
these islands, We had an opportunity of seeing two
men who presented Il loathsome appearance. They
were IeperS. and seemed to have entirely lost their
original skin, having the appearance of having been
completely scalded from head to foot. These wretch
ed beings, so much the object of adherence as well
as of compassion in our eyes, were highly respected
by their fellow islanders, as they were priests, and
both of them considered men of no common sanctity in
their eyes = 3 "The being they worship is the
being they fear" = = "These two lepers could
not have been more revered, had they been prophets. :"
From this general character, that their deity is
the offspring of their fears may be induced the whole
system of their mythology, and the attributes of their
divinities. Hence it is, the idea of honor being con-
nected with that of deformity, that representations
of these gods are usually either wholly ~shapeless or
frightful.''
Page $50. During this residence among them,
1 could not but observe their immoderate use of ava.
No sooner had they procured any fresh supply from
Eimeo, or the more distant parts of their own island,
than they gave themselves up to intOxication, and
remained stupefed for days together. L was again
confirmed in my opinion, that the introduction of
spirits would be attended with the general destruc-
ton of the population
PIP. 154, 155. Speaking of a Swede who had re-
sided a long time on Tahiti and been of great service
to the then ruling family in their wars, he says
: His disease moreover, the elephantiasiS, rendered
- ;,,o,o;bIo g., I;,, 20 live ~, b;s ;11uSFr,, IN anu
of the Kingdoms of Europe ; this he knew well, and
therefore dreaded any removal
Vol. 2, page 81. i + = Some c%onvicts from
Botany Bay, having effected their escape to the
Sandwich Islands, rendered themselves at first SER
viceable to Tamahama, and, in recompense, were
put in possession of small portions of land for Guilt
walton. On these they raised some sugar-canes, and
at last contriyed to distil a sort of spirit, with which
they entertained each other by turns, keeping birth
days and other holidays until Tamahama, finding
that such festivities greatly retarded his work, made
some gentle representations on the subject.
This levity, however, producing no good effect,
but the drinking, idleness and quarrels among the
new settlers, seeming rather to become more frequent
than before, and their insolence being carried so far
as to insult and maltreat many of the natives, Tama-
hama gave the strangers to understand, that in their
next fighting party he would make one of the COM
pany, and see who could best acquit himself on the
occasion. This hint produced the desired effect, the
Botany Bay settlers were soon brought into complete
submission, and a due sense of their situation.
"These particulars were collected from Mr.. Young;
a man of strict veracity, who, having been long in
the country, had the best opportunities to know the
truth. He has long been in the confidence of Tama-
-. .-lzzo co~t,-o L. 10. 30 F,Iau-oI Frou,
the beginning, and who gives him daily proofs of
the sincerity of his attachment. He added, that for
several years Tamahama had adopted it as a rule, to
request from all Europeans who touched within his
dominions, a certificate or testimonial of his good
conduct towards them ; but that now considering his
character for honesty and civility to be established,
he no longer deems such certificates of any inpor-
tance.'
Vol. >, page G8. s. = 1.-The Sandwich
Islands are extremely well peopled, all circumstances
of their nature and fertility being considered and
the women, according to Mr.. Young's account are
said to be more numerous than the men whereas in
Otaheiti the women are not reckoned to amount to
more than one-tenth part of the population.
The striking difference in the population of
these two spots may in a great measure be imputed
u Nv ChJAIC u tHS I'LL fA1NaiNS Va
infant murder. This increased population of the
Sandwich Islands has had one good effect it has
compelled the natives to exert themselves in assisting
nature by the more careful cultivation Of the soil,
and other branches of industry"
Vol. 2, page 81. "On the following morning We
received a visit from this good king, and were wei
coined very heartily by him to Ottowaie (Kauai)
His skin was covered with o greyish scurf, probably
occasioned by the immoderate use Of the ava. This
Ioathsoae disease had made q greater progress
on the person of this man, than on that of any other
we had before seen although at Otaheite we had
met with severe cases of the same d~istemper."
Vol. >, page 50. - Their passions are
naturally impetuous and when fed by the fuel Of
strong liquors, acknowledge no restraint. l knew
no sufficient punishment that the wretch would merit
who should import q cargo Of s~pirituous liquors into
the Sandwich or Society Islands it would in every
respect be tantamount to the willful administration Of
an equal quantity of poison, as the extent of the evil
would only be bounded by the destruction of the
whole of the population"
Vol. ,, page 218. 7 Eimean (Society Islands,
women are, to all appearance, much more industrious
than the Otaheitan females many Of them were en-
ployed in making cloth, and whole families in pre-
DlIGk4tL ~ ~ 1BPAC~SA-A5 ASH ~ O-NN-s - SP
peared to me to be but thinIy inhabited, and for the
same reason as Otaheite, the prevalence Of infant
murder.
Vol ,, pages l54, 155, chapt. %. about three
weeks after the ships departure, our friend Paitia
returned from the NTottos. 1t has been before men,
toned, that on our departure from the Sandwich
Islands We left him on the brink of death and that
as the last and only hope, he had been persuaded by
his friends to 90 to the Mottos, to the end that hC
might be there weaned Of his fatal passion for the
ava. He now returned from this journey, and il
every respect so much changed, that We had somt
difficulty to believe him the same. He was nov
stout, lusty and plump his skin, which was before
scaly, was now fat and sleek, and his constitution
appeared altogether renovated.
These Mottos are small sandy islets, almost leye
with the water-edge, and about twenty miles to the
n%orthwarl Of Otaheite
SMNM&4~#@/ OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES