POLYNESIA.

Polynesia is a name given by several early writers on geography, but first, we believe, by De Barros, to the numerous islands scattered over the Pacific Ocean, or, as it was usually called, the Great South Sea. It is the name which is now applied by most modern geographers to the sixth great division of the earth’s surface; a division which will probably appear, on examination, less arbitrary than some others; for whether we consider it in a political, physical, or moral point of view, the separation from America on the one hand, and from Australasia and the Asiatic islands on the other, is marked by very strong and distinct features. A considerable portion of the two last, for instance, have, ages ago, been invaded and taken possession of by foreigners, and many of them have more recently been colonized by Europeans. No colonies have yet been planted in Polynesia, with the exception of that on one of the Ladrone Islands by Spaiu. Of late, however, many of these islands have been visited by European missionaries, for the purpose of spreading amongst the natives the light of the gospel.; and in many cases their efforts have been so far successful that they have established permanent settlements in these islands, and have instructed the natives, not only in the doctrines of the Christian religion, but in all the mechanical arts and other improvements of civilized society. The inhabitants have no political connection with any of the other divisions of the earth, and little or none exists between any two of its groups or separate islands, each being governed by its own chiefs, and confining its friendships or hostilities to some neighbouring group or island.

Physically considered, the line of separation is almost as distinct as their political seclusion. If a line be drawn in a south-easterly direction along the eastern extremity of the Philippine Islands, Mindanao, Papua or New Guinea, New Ireland, and Solomon’s Archipelago, and from thence continued southerly along the eastern shores of the New Hebrides and New Zealand, this line will mark with sufficient precision the separation of the Asiatic islands (mostly to the northward of the equator) and Australasia (to the southward of the equator) from Polynesia. Besides, the geological structure of the islands which constitute the last-mentioned divisions is, generally speaking, essentially different, consisting chiefly of lofty mountains of primary or secondary formation, partaking of the same structure as those on the continent of Asia, with which some of them indeed may probably have once been connected, their rugged sides presenting as it were a broken barrier to the Great Pacific; whereas Polynesia exhibits a series of low, flat islands, scarcely rising above the level of the sea, which, with the exception of a few of the larger groups of volcanic formation, arc the labours of minute sea animals, and are usually distinguished by the name of Coral Islands or Reefs.

In a moral point of view, the distinctive character of the Polynesians is as strongly marked as the physical structure of the islands which they inhabit. In the Eastern Archipelago, or the Asiatic islands, and in Australasia, two distinct races of· men have been traced, the black and the broum. In the archipelago, and more particularly in the Philippine Islands, a few individual families of the negro race were discovered by the early European visitors; in New Guinea and the Papuan Islands the whole population appears to consist of this race. They differ in some respects from the negroes of the western coast of Africa, resembling rather those which are found on the eastern coast, particularly in the hair, which is strongly twisted into small tufts, and very different from that of the negro of Guinea.

None of these negroes have been discovered on any of the islands of Polynesia, all the inhabitants being of the brown race, and evidently derived from the same common stock to which the Tartars, the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Malays, owe their origin. In this opinion Sir William Jones, Dr Buchanan, Dr Hunter, Mr Marsden, and Sir Stamford Raffles, unanimously concur. This race, modified, of course, by the circumstances of climate, occupations, and habits, may thus be described :—Their persons short, squat, and robust; their lower limbs large and heavy; their arms fleshy; hands and feet small; face somewhat of a lozenge shape, the forehead and chin rather sharpened, but broad across the cheek-bones, which are high, and the cheeks hollow; the eyes black, small, narrow, and placed obliquely in the head, the external angle being the highest; nose broad, but not flat, and nostrils open and circular; mouth rather wide; hair harsh, lank, and quite black.

Dispersed as the Polynesians are, and rarely and purely: accidental as any communication between distant islands must be, it is perfectly certain that the different dialects spoken, from the shores of India and Africa to those of America, are the derivatives of one common language, which, according to Marsden, still forms the primitive portion of the Malay language, mixed as it now is with Sanscrit and Arabic. “The Malayan,” says this learned and accurate writer, “is a branch or dialect of the widely extended language prevailing throughout the islands of the archipelago to which it gives name, and those of the South Sea, comprehending, between Madagascar on the one side and Easter Island on the other, both inclusive, the space of full two hundred degrees of longitude. This consideration alone is ' sufficient to give it claim to the highest degree of antiquity, and to originality, as far as that term can be applied.”

Not less remarkable is the general accordance of the Polynesians in manners, superstitions, and religious observances. The conversion of the Malays of the archipelago to Mahommedanism has obliterated nearly their ancient faith, but enough still remains on some of the Asiatic islands, and still more on the Asiatic continent, to trace the source whence the Polynesians have derived their notions and practices on matters of this kind.

These preliminary observations on the physical form, features, language, and religion of the Polynesians, are made with a view to assert their common origin, and may be taken as a general description of the natives of the various groups of islands which are scattered over the surface of the vast Pacific Ocean. These groups are exceedingly different in their extent, both as to number and size, as well ’ as in their composition. Sometimes single islands are met with, surrounded by rocky reefs. These islands and reefs are dispersed, as already observed, over the whole of the Pacific Ocean, but chiefly between the thirtieth degree of northern and the thirtieth degree of southern latitude. The following classification will be found to embrace the greater part of those islands which are comprehended under the geographical division Polynesia:

In the Northern Hemisphere.

1. The Marian or Ladrone Islands.

2. The Carolinas, including the Pellew Islands.

3. The Sandwich Islands. <

4. The numerous reefs and coral islands scattered over the Pacific in both hemispheres.

In the Southern Hemisphere.

1. The Friendly Islands, including the group of the Tonga Islands.
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2. The Navigators’ Islands.

3. The Society Islands.

4. The Georgian Islands, including Otaheite or Tahiti, and the great range extending as far as Pitcairn’s Island.

5. The Marquesas.

6. Easter Island.

IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE.

1. The Ladrone Islands were first discovered by Magelhaens on the 6th of March 1521. This name, by which they are generally known, was given to them by the Spaniards on account of the thievish disposition of the natives. They also called them Islas de los Velos Latinas, in reference to the sails of their canoes. By some they were called Los Jardinas (the Gardens), and by others Dosprazeres (the Delightful Islands); and when missionaries were first sent thither in 1668, under the patronage of Mary-Anne of Austria, queen of Philip, they took the name of Las Marianas, in honour of that lady. They consist of four larger and several smaller islands. The former are called Saypan, Tinian, Zarpan or Rosa, and Aguigan, or rather Guahan. Saypan has a lofty peak, evidently volcanic, but the rest are of a moderate height, and are surrounded by rocks of coral formation. They lie between latitude 13° and 15½° N., longitude about 144° E.

On approaching these islands, Magelhaens perceived that they were inhabited, and the natives presently came off to the ships with cocoa-nuts, yams, and rice. They were stout, well-made people, of a pale-yellow complexion, long black hair, and their teeth dyed red or black; an apron of the bark of a tree was their only covering, a lance pointed with a fish-bone their only weapon. Their boats had lat-teen or shoulder of mutton sails, with outriggers to prevent their upsetting, and they sailed with great swiftness. The captain-general was so delighted with the appearance of the country, that he intended to refresh his crew amongst them; but such numbers of the inhabitants flocked on board his ships, and were so addicted to thieving, that, being under the necessity of driving them away by force, hostilities ensued, and several of the natives were killed. Magelhaens had one of his boats stolen, which so exasperated him that he landed with ninety of his people, set fire to their houses, which were of wood, and carried off all the provisions he could find.

The expedition of Loyosa, commanded, after his death, by Sebastian del Cano, and at his decease by Alonzo de Salazar, touched at the Ladrone Islands in 1526, and being received in the most friendly manner, procured water and provisions in plenty for the sickly squadron. To the great surprise of the Spaniards, a countryman of theirs, named Gonzalo de Vigo, came to them from one of the islands, having deserted from one of the ships of Magelhaens; two others, he said, had deserted at the same time, but were put to death by the natives. They found no quadrupeds on the island, but plenty of excellent fruits, fish, and rice. The only birds were turtle-doves, of which the islanders appeared to be so fond, that they kept them in cages, and taught them to speak.

In 1565, the Ladrone Islands were again visited by Lopez de Legaspe∙ Whilst the ships were yet two leagues from the shore, the natives came off in their canoes, but kept at a distance from the ships. The general put knives and other articles on a plank, and floated it off, and the natives showed fruits, patting their bellies, and pointing to the shore, to induce the Spaniards to land. This they did the following day on the island of Guahan, and exchanged bits of iron for provisions; but notwithstanding the regulations made by Legaspe in order to prevent quarrels, skirmishes took place, and one of the seamen, who had strolled into the woods, being found murdered, the Spaniards landed’in force, set fire to their houses and canoes, wounded several of the natives, and hung upon the spot three wounded prisoners.

No kind of aiīimal was found on the island, nor would the natives taste any other animal food except fish. “But that which caused most admiration,” says Friar Gaspar, “was, that they would drink salt water, and were such expert swimmers, and passed so much of their time in the water, that, as among other animals, some are amphibious, in like manner it seemed as if these people were in their nature amphibious.”

In 1588, our countryman Candish or Cavendish came in sight of the Ladrones, and sailed along the coast of Guahan, from which a number of canoes came off with fruits and vegetables, which were exchanged for pieces of iron; but the natives became so troublesome, that, in order to get rid of them, Cavendish ordered muskets to be fired at them.

In 1600, Olivier Van Noort made the Ladrone Islands, and stopped near Guahan for two days, from which island above two hundred canoes came off to the ships with fish, fruits, and rice, to exchange for iron; and fowls are also mentioned, for the first time, in this voyage. In the same year, the Santa Margarita, a Spanish ship, having lost her captain and many of her crew by sickness, anchored off Saypan, and was taken possession of by the natives, who killed some of the crew, and took others of them on shore, where they were kindly treated, and such as survived were afterwards taken off by a Spanish ship which had been sent for the purpose.

In 1616, Spilbergen made the Ladrone Islands, and stopped two days to traffic with the natives for provisions of fruit, fowls, and fish, in exchange for bits of iron. In 1625, the fleet under Prince Maurice of Nassau refreshed at Guahan, and were supplied by a hundred and fifty canoes, with immense quantities of cocoa-nuts, yams, bananas, rice, ‘and fowls, which were of infinite service, as the scurvy had made such havoc among the crews, that in some of the ships they had scarcely strength enough to manage the sails.

In the year 1668, the Spaniards established a mission on the island Guahan, consisting of P. Servitores and five other fathers, with several lay-assistants, most of them natives of the Philippine Islands, and well acquainted with the Tagul language, the same as that spoken by the natives of the Ladrone Islands. For some time the chiefs of the islands behaved with great kindness to the Jesuits, and gave them ground for building a church. From this seat of the mission the fathers spread themselves amongst the other islands, where they were received with equal kindness. In short, P. Servitores says, that in the first year they had baptized more than thirteen thousand islanders, and instructed twenty thousand, in the eleven islands which they had visited. As usual, however, the imprudent zeal of the missionaries ruined their cause, by shocking the prejudices of the natives. These simple people took it into their heads that, as an infant had died shortly after being baptized, its death had been occasioned in consequence of that ceremony; and such was the terror of mothers on seeing a missionary approach, that they seized their children and ran off with them into the woods. This opinion gathered ground from the eagerness of the Jesuits to get hold of infants for the purpose of baptizing them, and more than one of these holy fathers fell martyrs to their imprudent zeal. Several murders ensued; and, as the Spaniards had taken care to strengthen the mission with a body of troops well armed, with the obvious intention of taking possession of the Ladrones as an important outpost to the Philippine Islands, after a great number of the natives had been put to death, the rest submitted to the yoke of the Spaniards; though most of the missionaries suffered in the contest, and last of all Servitores, who was killed by the man to whom he had been the greatest benefactor, because the missionary insisted on baptizing his child. Thus, [7:18:317] at the age of forty-five, this pious and good man, for such he certainly was, fell by the hand of an assassin, after having, as we are told, “established the faith in thirteen islands, founded eight churches, established three seminaries for the instruction of youth, and baptized nearly fifty thousand of the islanders.” From this time constant revolts and massacres ensued, and the most inhuman cruelties were inflicted on the unhappy islanders; so that, in 1681, the island of Guahan, which, on the first landing of the Spaniards, counted forty thousand inhabitants (some accounts make them more), had become so completely depopulated, that it was found necessary to bring inhabitants from the northern islands to cultivate the soil.

In the year 1685, the ship of John Eaton, the bucaneer, touched at Guahan, the crew of which quarrelled with the natives, and killed some of them. Having satisfied the Spanish governor that it was done in their own defence, “he gave us toleration,” says Cowley in his narrative, “to kill them all if we could.”...“We took four of these infidels prisoners,” continues the narrator, “and brought them on board, binding their hands behind them; but they had not been long there, when three of them leaped overboard into the sea, swimming away from the ship, with their hands tied behind them. However, we sent the boat after them, and found a strong man, at the first blow, could not penetrate their skins with a cutlass; one of them had received, in my judgment, forty shots in his body before he died; and the last of the three that was killed had swam a good English mile first, not only with his hands behind him, as before, but also with his arms pinioned.” We are told by the late Captain Burney, that it is stated in Cowley’s manuscript in the British Museum, that “the boat coming up with them, our carpenter, being a strong man, thought with his sword to cut off the head of one of them, but he struck two blows before he could fetch blood.”

In 1686, Dampier touched at Guahan, and states the number of natives not to exceed a hundred. He gives a particular description of their “flying proas,” with their outriggers, which, he says, “sail the best of any boats in the world; that he tried the swiftness of one by his log, and that she ran twelve knots out before the half-minute glass was half out.” “I believe,” says Dampier, “she would run twenty-four miles an hour.” Woodes Rogers, who visited the Ladrones in 1710, states it as his opinion that one of these proas would sail at the rate of twenty miles an hour.

In the month of August 1742, Commodore Anson anchored before the island of Tinian. It was deserted, but cattle to the number of at least ten thousand, hogs and fowls, were running about wild. Cocoa-nuts in innumerable quantities, bread-fruit, oranges, limes, water-melons, and other tropical fruits, were in the greatest abundance. The island swarmed with rats, and the flics, mosquitoes, and ticks or bugs, were very troublesome; but it was a paradise to the crew of the Centurion, in the horrible state of scurvy in which they arrived. Though now deserted, Tinian, on the arrival of the Spaniards, is said to have contained thirty thousand inhabitants. Ruins of buildings, consisting of pyramidal pillars of considerable dimensions, were met with in all parts of the island.

Commodore Byron anchored in the year 1765 before Tinian, and found the island overgrown with large trees and underwood, amongst which were most of the tropical fruits. He complains bitterly of the bad anchorage, brackish water, and venomous insects, from which they suffered so severely, that “we were afraid,” he says, “to lie down in our beds and though his crew recovered fast from the scurvy, he lost two by fevers, being the first deaths in his ship since leaving England. “I am indeed of opinion,” says the commodore, “that this is. one of the most unhealthy spots in the world, at least during the season in which we were here ;” yet it was in the same month that it had been visited by the Centurion.

The latest account of these islands is that of Lieutenant Kotzebue, who visited Guahan in 1817. No canoes nor proas, nor happy islanders, greeted his approach; the whole race of natives had long been extirpated. “We looked,” he says, “in vain for a canoe or a man on the shore; and it almost seemed as if we were off an uninhabited island. The sight of this lovely country deeply affected me. Formerly these fertile valleys were the abode of a nation, who passed their days in tranquil happiness; now only the beautiful palm groves remained to overshadow their graves; a deathlike silence everywhere prevailed.” Soon, however, a person appeared from the Spanish governor, and piloted the ship into the harbour; and after this, Kotzebue proceeded to the town of Agana, situated upon a beautiful plain, some hundred paces from the shore, in the midst of fine palm groves, some of the houses being built of coral rock, others of bamboo. It has a church and a convent, and two fortresses, one to protect the town from the seawards, and the other to keep the Indians in awe. The town contains about 200 houses, and 1500 inhabitants, who derive their origin from Mexicoand the Philippines. The population of the island is about five thousand souls. “There is but one man and his wife,” says Kotzebue, “on the whole island of the original stock; with the death of these two people, the race of the old Ladrones will be totally extinguished.” “The present race,” says Chamisso, “no longer know the sea, are no mariners, no swimmers; they have ceased to build boats. They now scarcely hollow out, without skill, the trunks of trees to fish within the breakers.” All the other islands to the north of Guahan arc entirely uninhabited, and overrun with wild cattle, hogs, and goats, which afford a supply to the American vessels trading to the Sandwich Islands and the north-west coast of America. Indeed it is said that some of these people have been allowed to settle themselves in Agrigan, on condition of acknowledging their allegiance to Spain, and that they are peopling the island by kidnapping the natives of the Sandwich Islands.

2. The Carolinas, or Caroline Islands—In 1686, a Spanish ship, being near the meridian of the Ladrones, fell in with an island, which her commander, Don Francisco Lazeano, named La Carolina, in honour of the kiug of Spain, Carlos II. This island has given the name to a very extensive chain spreading over a space of not less than six degrees of latitude and twenty-five degrees of longitude, the western extremity being the group of the Palaos or Pellew Islands, in latitude 7° north, longitude I35° east, and the easternmost island, that of Hogolen, in latitude 9° north, longitude 155° east. The whole group, as far as is known, which, however, is very imperfectly, consists of at least a hundred and fifty separate islands, and may be nearly twice as many, besides various coral rcefs with islets upon them. Yet, numerous as they are, being somewhat out of the direct and usual route of the Spaniards in their voyages from South America to the Philippines, they had the good fortune to escape any intimate connection with them; a connection which has proved equally baneful to others, whether established by the cross or the sword, by their professions of friendship or avowals of hostility. Go-bien, the historian of the desolating progress of the Spaniards in the Ladrones, says that Quiroga, the governor, made search for the island of Carolina, “wishing to extend the faith to its infidel inhabitants, and, for that purpose, sent some soldiers, and with them the chanionis (or chief), Don Alonzo Soon; but after a fruitless search, and much pains, they returned without finding the object of their research.”

. Some of these islands, however, and especially those towards the western extremity of the group, had been seen by various navigators long before that of Carolina was noticed[7:18:318] and named by Lazeano. The Portuguese, Da Rocha, fell in with islands in 9° or 10° north latitude, in 1526, which he named Sequeira, after his pilot; and, in 1628, Saavedra, a Spaniard, in his passage to the Philippines, discovered islands in latitude 11°, which he named Los Reyes. In 1579, our countryman Drake saw some islands, to which he gave the name of the Islands of Thieves, which, from his description, have been supposed to be the Pellew Islands. In 1595, one of the islands, in about 6° north, was seen by Mendana; but two proas full of people, driven by the violence of the wind from a group of islands in the east, as far as Samal, roused the attention of the College of Jesuits at Manilla, who made several unsuccessful attempts to establish missions on those islands, which the wrecked natives described to consist of thirty-two in number. In the year 1710, the two fathers, Duberron and Cortel, embarked in the San Trinidad, with a crew of eighty-six men, to establish themselves on the Pellew Islands. They landed on Sonsorol, with the quartermaster and ensign of the troops, in all sixteen persons; but the ship being driven off by the current, made for another of the islands, called Panloque, at the supposed distance of fifty leagues from the Sonsorolles. On approaching the island, several boats came of f; and some of the Palaos people swam from them to the ship, and coming on board, attempted to steal whatever they could lay their hands on. In consequence of this, they were ordered away; and having reached their boats, began to shoot arrows at the ship, which were answered by a discharge of musketry. The ship now returned to the Sonsorolles to inquire after the two missionaries and the boat; but the strong winds ‘and currents would not suffer them to anchor, nor could they see or hear anything of their companions, though they stood in towards the shore within cannon shot. A storm coming on, left them no alternative except “to return to Manilla, with the sorrowful news of what had happened.” What became of the missionaries was never ascertained. The following year, however, P. Serano departed from Manilla, in a ship fitted out for the purpose, in search of the two fathers and their companions; but she foundered three days after she departed from Manilla, and every person on board perished, except one Spaniard and two Indians, who brought back the melancholy intelligence.

In the Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses is a letter and chart from P. Juan Antonio Cantova, a missionary at Guahan, addressed to the king of Spain’s confessor in 1722, in which is given a more particular account of the Carolinas than any which had before or has since been published. It states that, in the preceding year, a bark, with eleven men, seven women, and six children, arrived on the east side of Guahan; and that, two days after, another canoe, with four men, one woman, and child, came to the opposite side of the island. The two parties, on being brought together, recognised each other with great joy. It appeared they had been dispersed by a gale of wind, and driven about for twenty days, without knowing where they were. Cantova thus describes them: They wore a garment open at die sides, but covering the shoulders and breast, and extending down to the knees. The women had a piece of cloth round the waist, falling, like a petticot, to the middle of the leg. Their hair was curly, the nose large, the eyes large and penetrating, and the beards of the men moderately thick. Some had the pure colour of the Indians; others were apparently of a mixed breed between Spaniards and Indians, and others between a negro and an Indian. Cantova succeeded in learning their language, and obtained from them the following particulars respecting their islands.

The Carolinas are divided into five provinces. Beginning at the east, the first is named Cittac; the principal island, Hogolen. is much larger than Guahan; its inhabitants are negroes, mulattoes, and whites. There are eighteen principal islands in this province, besides a multitude of smaller ones. The second province consists of about twenty-six islands, of which Ulee and Lamurree are the principal ones. The third province consists of a grbup of islands, of which Feis is the principal, being very populous and fertile; but the chief of the group resides at Mogmog, and all the proas which approach this island lower their sails in token of respect to this chief. Of the fourth province, Yap is the principal island, about a hundred and twenty miles in circuit, very populous, and fruitful. The fifth province is the most westerly, and is named Panleu (the Palaos, or Pellew Islands), of which there are seven principal islands. It is remarkable that the inhabitants of these islands so far differ from the Carolinians in general, and from the account given of them in the romance of Mr Keats, drawn up by that ingenious gentleman from the documents furnished by Captain Wilson, that they are represented as a most barbarous race, both men and women going entirely naked, and feeding on human flesh. We are told by the naturalist of Kotzebue’s expedition, that a Spaniard, who had lived nine months on the Pellew Islands, and whom they met with at Cavite, gave him a horrible account of the natives; that they were wholly without shame, that husbands lend their wives for a mere trifle, that the women are without modesty, and that they certainly eat human flesh; a great part of which was confirmed by a native of the Carolinas, who had been at the Pellew Islands.

Cantova further learned from the islanders, that to the eastward were a great number of other islands, the inhabitants of which pay adoration to the shark; that most of them are negroes, and of savage dispositions. It is supposed that Cantova returned with these islanders in the year 1722, though no account of any such voyage is on record; but in 1731 he embarked for the islands of the third province, in company with another father, of the name of Walter, from which the former never returned. The latter, however, returned to procure certain articles of which they stood in need, was driven to the Philippines, re-embarked in 1732, and was wrecked. Walter again embarked in May 1733, along with forty-four persons. On the ninth day they approached the, island, and fired cannon to inform Cantova of their arrival, but no boat appeared. Standing within a musket-shot of the shore, they observed that their former habitation had disappeared, as well as the cross which had been erected near the sea-shore. Four small canoes at length approached the vessel, bringing cocoa-nuts. On inquiring after Cantova and his companions, the islanders were evidently embarrassed, and said they were gone to Yap. Being fearful, by their manner, that the good father had fallen by the hands of the barbarians, and willing to be satisfied on this head, they seized one of the islanders, upon which the rest swam ashore. After the strongest assurances that no harm should be done to him, provided he would tell the truth, he confessed that shortly after the departure of Walter, the natives put the Father Cantova to death, and all his companions, fourteen in number. Cantova, it seemed, from this man’s account, went, with his interpreter and two soldiers, to the island Mogmog, to baptize, whilst the rest remained at Falalep. He had scarcely set his foot on shore when he was surrounded and pierced through and through with lances, the natives crying out that he was come to take away the old law, and give them a new one. They gave his body a decent burial, but the bodies of his companions were put into a canoe, which was then turned adrift upon the ocean. The same people then went over to the island of Falalep, and put to death the remainder of the’ companions of Cantova.

Since that time, little or no information has been procured respecting the Carolinas, with the exception of that which is contained in the narrative of Mr Keats, from the [7:18:319]materials of Captain Wilson, who, when commander of the Antelope packet, in the service of the East India Company, was wrecked on Oroolong, one of the Pellew Islands. Whatever their general character may be, the crew of the Antelope found them a friendly, hospitable, and humane people. They were stout, well made, rather above the middle size, and their colour approaching to a deep brown; their hair long, some wearing it loose, and others turned up. The men were entirely naked; the women contented themselves with two little aprons or fringes, made of the fibres of the cocoa-nut husk, about ten inches deep and seven wide, one of which was worn before, and the other behind. Both sexes were tattooed; the men had one ear perforated, the women both, and they wore beads, tortoise-shell, or leaves, as suited their fancy; the cartilage of the nose was also bored, and a little sprig or blossom of some plant was generally stuck in the hole; their teeth were dyed black by a paste prepared of certain herbs, which, it is pretended, caused severe sickness for five days, the time required to complete the operation.

Fish and cocoa-nuts are the chief articles of food, but the islands afford an abundant supply of yams, plantains, oranges, lemons, bread-fruit, carambola, and the areca-nut; the sugar-cane grew wild. No quadruped, except rats, was found on the islands; of birds, the pigeon was the most abundant, and the domestic fowl ran wild in the woods. The natives were wholly unacquainted with the use of salt. Their usual beverage consisted of the milk of the cocoa-nut. Their houses were of bamboo and plank, raised upon stones from the ground. The husk of the cocoa-nut supplied them with nets and cordage, and the tortoise-shell with hooks to catch fish. Their knives were made of mother-of-pearl, shells, or split bamboo; the cocoa-nut served them for cups, the plaintain leaf for plates, and the fibres of this plant for mats to sleep on. Their weapons were spears of wood, darts, and slings. Their boats were canoes made of the trunks of large trees, and some of them sufficiently capacious to hold from twenty to thirty persons. In the day-time they seemed to live as much in the water as on shore, and both sexes were admirable swimmers. The women mixed freely with the other sex, and their conduct was not strictly inquired into by their husbands. They seemed to have little sense of any religious duties, except in the ceremonies attending the burial of the dead, which takes place in spots set apart for that purpose, and with great solemnity; but they have some faint notion that the soul survives the body. Their graves very much resembled those in a country church-yard of England, some having earth heaped up in the same manner, and others covered with flat tombstones, and protected by fences of wicker-work.

The larger of the Pellew Islands are of a moderate height, rising into beautiful hills, well clothed with forest trees. The natural history still remains unknown, but being about the same parallel and of the same formation with the numerous group visited by Kotzebue, the plants and animals are in all probability much the same. The smaller islands are the productions of the coral-making animals, with which the larger are also surrounded to a great distance from their shores.

3. The Sandwich Islands This fine group of islands in the Northern Pacific had the good fortune to escape the visits of the old navigators, and the discovery of them was reserved for Captain Cook, who first touched at them in the year 1778, and lost his valuable life there in 1779. Μ. Fleurieu, in his introduction to Marchand’s Voyage, is disposed to dispute this claim, and to assign the first discovery of these islands to Mendana, for no other reason but that it appears he passed at no great distance from Owyhee, but without seeing it, on his return voyage in 1568; and because he finds an island named Mesa laid down on the nineteenth parallel of latitude, on the obscure and unauthenticated chart of Galion de Manille. It is almost unnecessary to add, that the name by which they are now known was given to them by Captain Cook, in honour of the Earl of Sandwich, under whose naval administration geography was enriched with many important discoveries.

According to Captain King, the group consists of eleven islands. But the missionaries only enumerate ten; and they reduce the population below the estimate of former voyagers. The following is the estimated length, breadth, and superficial contents of these islands. The names are given according to the orthography of the missionaries.
[table]

The missionaries estimate the whole population at 130,000. Others raised it to 400,000. We have no data for any accurate calculation. But if Oahu and Owyhee contain, as the missionaries state, 105,000, their estimate of 130,000 for the whole must be under-stated. They are situated between latitude 18. 54. north (the south point of Owyhee), and 22. 2. north (the latitude of Woahoo), and between the longitude 199. 36. (the small island of Tahurawa), and 205. 6. (the eastern extremity of Owyhee).

The island of Owyhee is described as rising majestically in grand unbroken lines from the ocean, and forming three several mountain peaks, on two of which lies snow for the greater part of the year. They are as under:
[table]

These measurements, as given by Kotzebue, agree within a few toises with those of Marchand. The whole group is of volcanic origin, and on the summit of Mouna Wororai is an immense crater. The last eruption from the side of this mountain took place in 1801. The chain of mountains runs from the north-west point of Owyhee, over the islands Mowhee, Morotoi, and Woahoo. On Mowhee is a peak as high nearly as that of Wororai, but the latter is the only volcano in a state of activity.

These islands, though volcanic, are surrounded by coral reefs, and the plains next the sea, which are raised only a few feet above it, were once of the same description, and covered with water. These plains are generally naked and sunburnt, but the valleys amongst the mountains are beautifully picturesque and fertile, and the sides of the hills are covered with magnificent forests. The most fertile and best cultivated of the group is Woahoo, on which is the safe and capacious harbour of Hana-rura, protected by a coral reef through a break of which lies the entrance to it. In one of the mountains a diamond mine was supposed to exist, but the products turned out to be only quartz crystals. In the Pearl River of this island oysters have been found containing pearls, but none of much value.

Amongst the indigenous plants mentioned by Chamisso, the naturalist of Kotzebue’s expedition, are the acacia, me-trosideros, pandanus, santalum, aleurites, dracoena, amomi-um, curcuma, tacca. The families of rubiaceae, contortae, and urticae, predominate. From the latter, as well as from the paper mulberry ÇProussonetia papyrifera), are made their cordage and cloths. The acacia tree, used for their boats and canvass, grows only in mountains, which is the case [7:18:320]also with the sandal-wood, the principal article of export from the islands.

The plants mostly in use for domestic purposes are the banana-tree, the cocoa-nut tree, the bread-fruit, sugar-cane, yam, batatos, and the taro-root {Arum esculentum), of indigenous growth; besides which have been introduced the tobacco plant, the melon, and water-melon, rice, and the vine, the last of which will unquestionably thrive well on the sides of the volcanic mountains; also cucumbers, cabbages, beans, and the cloth plant, together with a few oranges and pine-apples. The cultivation of the taro-root has the greatest share of attention bestowed on it; and, in fact, it constitutes a considerable portion of the food of the people. The fields or ponds in which this root is planted are enclosed with stones in the form of regular squares, from a hundred to two hundred feet each side; these squares are connected by sluices to convey the water from one to the other, pretty much in the same manner that the Chinese manage their rice-fields. “I have seen,” says Kotzebue, “whole mountains covered with such fields, through which the water gradually flowed; each sluice formed a small cascade, which ran through avenues of sugar-cane, or banana, into the next pond, and afforded an extremely picturesque prospect.”

A convict from New South Wales has taught the people of these islands the art of distilling ardent spirits from sugarcane, and a plant called the tee-root (the Dracaena terminalis). And, as every chief has now his still, it is probable that the use of the pernicious kava will give way to that of the almost equally pernicious spirituous liquors. This kava is the liquor or juice of a root of the pepper tribe {Piper methysticum), chewed and spit out into a large bowl, and then diluted with water, and this exquisite beverage is prepared for the sole use of the king and the nobles, the women being prohibited from tasting it. The baneful effects of this liquor have been noticed by most voyagers; the bodies of those who swallow it are, in process of time, covered with a white scurf, their eyes become red and inflamed, their limbs emaciated, and their whole frame trembling and paralytic.

When Captain Cook first discovered these islands, the only quadrupeds upon them were hogs, dogs, and rats. They have now horses, asses, horned cattle, many of them running wild in the mountains, and goats. Hogs are exceedingly abundant. “They are so large,” says Kotzebue, “that the whole crew could not eat one in two days ;” and the flavour, from being fed on sugar-cane, is very superior to European pork. Fowls, ducks, and geese, are equally abundant.

The Sandwich Islands, though last discovered, have been more frequently visited by Europeans and Americans, and particularly by the latter, than any other group of islands in the whole range of Polynesia; and they have made greater advances in civilization than any other of the Polynesian islands. They were indebted for this superiority to the enterprising character of their monarch, Tamehameha I., who seems fully to have appreciated the advantages of European improvements. When Captain Vancouver visited these islands in 1792, the king being‘desirous of having a vessel of European construction, this able navigator laid down the keel of one, which was speedily finished. Ten or twelve years after this, when Mr Turnbull visited the islands, he Had a naval force of twenty vessels or upwards, from twenty-ty-five to fifty tons, which traded amongst the islands. He had built a house for himself, after the European manner, with windows of glass, and he imitated the English in his dress. By means of English and American seamen and artificers, some of whom deserted from ships touching there, and others obtained regular permission to remain on the islands, most of the trades exercised in Europe were partially introduced into the Sandwich Islands.

The attention of Tamehameha, though he was a decided reformer, was chiefly directed to the improvement of his dress and dwelling, to the building of forts for the protection of his islands, and to the training of his soldiers in the European mode of discipline. But he was not equally solicitous for intellectual improvements; and he adhered most tenaciously to the faith and to all the customs of his forefathers. In a visit to the Morai, pointing to the large wooden statues, he said to Kotzebue, “These are our gods, whom I worship. Whether I do right or wrong I do not know, but I follow my faith, which cannot be wicked, as it commands me never to do wrong.” Such sentiments do honour to the savage; and the man who entertains them is capable of being instructed in better things.

During his reign, also, the women continued to be degraded and despised; and, notwithstanding the frequent intercourse with strangers, and the improvements which undoubtedly have been introduced, the sex do not appear to have gained a single step in the estimation of the men, or lost any part of their grossness of behaviour since they were first visited by Captain Cook. That “offensively conspicuous wantonness,” which Vancouver deplores, and to which he found no parallel in the whole of Polynesia, appears to have suffered no abatement. When Campbell, the seaman, was on the island of Woahoo, the king’s brother died, on which occasion, as part of the general mourning, a public prostitution of the women took place. The captain of a ship then in the harbour remonstrated with the king, who coolly observed, it was their custom, and he could not prevent it. The women, too, it seems, are more addicted to drinking than the men. The governor of Woahoo invited Kotzebue and his officers to witness a dance of the natives, at which he was not present, but sent an apology to say, that his lady was so drunk that he could not leave her. The women are also great smokers of tobacco, and continue it sometimes till they fall down senseless.

Though the women are so far degraded that they cannot eat in the same house with their lords and masters, and must not taste at all of certain articles, yet if the latter be sick, they must howl and make lamentations, tear their hair, lacerate their cheeks; and if he should die (provided he be a Jcrrie, Eree, or noble), the favourite wife must die with him. The victims, both men and women, who are to be sacrificed at the death of Tamehameha, are well known; nor is it concealed even from themselves, and they glory in the distinction. “I have myself,” says Kotzebue, “seen one of the devoted victims in Woahoo, a man who was always cheerful and happy.” On the death of the king, these people will be led bound into the royal Morai (temple and burning place), where, after the prescribed ceremonies, they will suffer death at the hands of the priests. The ancient system of idolatry was calculated to operate on the fears of its votaries. “Its requisitions,” says one of the missionary writers,^[1. Evangelical Magazine, No. 37, January 1826, p. 30. ] “were severe, and its rites cruel and bloody. Grotesque and horrid wooden figures, animals, and the bones of chiefs, were the objects of worship. Human sacrifices were offered whenever a temple was to be dedicated, or a chief was sick, or a war was to be undertaken, and these occasions were frequent. The apprehensions which the people have of a future state were undefined and fearful. The lower orders expected to be slowly devoured by evil spirits, or to dwell with the gods in burning mountains. The several professions, such as that of the fisherman, the tiller of the ground, and the builder of canoes and houses, had each their presiding deities. Household gods are also kept, which the natives worshipped in their habitations; the volcanoes had moreover a superintending power. One merciful provision, however, had existed from time immemorial, and that was sacred enclosures, places of refuge, into which those who [7:18:321]fled from war or from any violent pursuer might enter and there be safe.”

To violate the sanctity of the Morai is one of the greatest crimes of which a man can be guilty. Campbell was present at the execution of a man who had committed this offence, in getting drunk and running out of the Morai during tabboo time. He was taken back to the Morai, where his eyes were put out; in this state he remained two days, when he was strangled and his body exposed before the image of Etooah, or Eatooah, the principal deity, who, according to their belief, is the creator of the universe, and who afterwards destroyed it by an inundation that covered the whole earth except Mouna Roa, on the top of which one single pair had the good fortune to save themselves, from whom the present race of men, that is, the Sandwich Islanders, sprung.

That singular superstition by which the king, the nobles, and the priests, under the name of tabboo, have contrived to render sacred and inviolable whatever they may wish to appropriate to their own use, and which is in universal operation through the whole of Polynesia, is practised to a great extent in the Sandwich Islands. By means of it, a whole people are contented to be robbed of their property, and to suffer any privations that may be imposed on them, without murmuring. When their houses are tabbooed they dare not enter them; when their taro-roots or their hogs are tabbooed, they surrender them without a struggle; but in return, it must be owned, they are not scrupulous in appropriating to themselves whatever is not tabbooed.

Amongst the customs which they in veterately retain, is that of tattooing the body; this operation being also universal amongst the islanders of the Pacific. The hands and arms of the women, in particular, are marked with peculiar elegance of figure, and many of the w omen have the tip of the tongue tattooed. Contrary, however, to the common practice of the islanders, they do not paint their bodies, nor wear ornaments of any kind in the ears; but the women decorate their hair, which is cut short, with wreaths of flowers, and wear necklaces, bracelets, and anklets of shells, coral, and other substances. The common dress of the men is the maro i a piece of cloth about a foot wide, which, passing between the legs, is tied round the waist; that of the women is a short petticot, reaching about half-way down the thigh. The chiefs, on days of ceremony, and on particular occasions, wear cloaks made of the most beautiful feathers, with an elegantly-shaped helmet to correspond. They are ambitious, however, to appear in the dress of Europeans, to enable them to do which, great quantities of old laced coats are carried out to the Sandwich Islands as articles of commerce.

The character of these islanders, like that of all savages in their natural state, is stained with every degrading vice. The missionaries who were stationed in the island, and who had the best opportunities of estimating the dispositions of the natives, describe them as lamentably debased; being in the continual practice of theft, treachery, drunkenness, gross licentiousness, and infanticide, and strangers to every social and domestic virtue. Polygamy is the common custom; and murder by poison is believed by the natives to be very frequent. Great improvements have, however, been effected by the instructions of the missionaries, who have persevered in this, as in the other islands, with an enthusiasm that has at length been crowned with success, and has laid the foundation of a great moral change in the condition of these barbarous islanders. The system of idolatry, so far as it was connected with the government, was abolished by Rhio-Rhio, or Tamehameha II., the son and successor of Tamehameha L, who laid the foundation of social improvement amongst his subjects. This took place in 1819, beforeany Christian missionaries came in to his dominions. He was induced to adopt this policy from various causes, namely, a desire to improve the condition of his wives, who were subject, along with all other females, to many inconveniences, from the operation of the tabboo already explained. 2dly, Several foreigners and intelligent chiefs advised the change; and the report of what had been done by Pomare, king of Otaheite, in the Georgian Islands, had great weight with him. Some disturbances took place in consequence of the abolition of idolatry; but the insurgents were defeated, and peace was restored. In 1820, missionaries were, after some difficulty, allowed to settle, some at Kairua, but the greater number at Honororu, on the island of Oahu or Woahoo. They had to encounter difficulties, moral as well as physical, in their ignorance of a rude unwritten language, which they mastered, however, by perseverance, and constructed an alphabet, and finally a grammar and spellingbook, which was in great demand amongst the natives. In the year 1822 they had made such proficiency that Mr Ellis began to preach in the native language; and six missionary stations were established, at each of which a church was erected, and worship regularly celebrated on the Sunday. In 1824, the king and queen of the Sandwich Islands embarked, amidst the sighs and tears of their subjects, on a voyage to Great Britain, where they died the same year. Their bodies, with their surviving attendants, were brought to the Sandwich Islands in the Blonde frigate, under the command of Lord Byron. Kamkeoli, the brother of the king, was unanimously acknowledged as his successor, under whose protection the missionaries continued their labours, often under great discouragements, in establishing schools, planting churches, training native teachers and missionaries, and in instructing the people in industry and the mechanical arts. The church at Oahu was resorted to by great numbers. It contains only seven hundred, and two thousand were often assembled without doors. According to late accounts, sixty-three schools, containing 1583 scholars, and under the superintendence of native teachers, had been visited; besides others in the vicinity of Honororu. Spelling-books to the amount of thirteen thousand had been distributed amongst the people. Amongst those who paid attention to the instructions of the missionaries, numbers made an open profession of the Christian faith; and amongst all a stricter morality prevailed. They became more humane, more industrious and honest; the females no longer, as formerly, resorted for prostitution to British ships; they adopted a different dress, after the European fashion, and many were baptized. This sudden change, however, appears to have been owing as much to the love of novelty as to the influence of a purer faith; and, accordingly, it has been found in this, as in the other islands, that the gloss of novelty having worn off, many of the wholesome restraints imposed upon their unbridled passions have been thrown off, and they have relapsed into their former barbarous and profligate habits. Still the seeds of civilization have been scattered far and wide, and in due time, we may be assured, they will bear fruit. The people may relapse to a certain degree, but they will never sink to their former state of barbarism. There is no doubt, in short, that since the missionaries have established themselves in these islands, and our ships of war have frequented them, a great change has taken place in the habits and moral character of the natives. “I was glad,” says Captain Bruce of the Imogene, “that, at the spot where the intrepid navigator Cook met his untimely end, his memory is cherished with the greatest veneration, and that the prevalence of Christianity is now general throughout the island.” The same observation will apply to the Society Islands, and indeed to all those where the missionaries have established themselves. The odious part of the habits and manners of the people is fast disappearing.

4. Coral Islands and Reefs. — The number and position of the multitude of low islands, sometimes found in groups, and sometimes solitary, are by no means yet ascertained; but, [7:18:322]from the various tracts of ships, it is known that the whole of that part of the Pacific lying between the equator and the tenth degree of north latitude, and from the Pellew Islands to 180° longitude, being at least forty-five degrees of longitude, is completely studded with low coral islands and reefs in countless numbers, some of them inhabited, and others not; and in different stages, from the circular reef, with islets rising upon it like the beads of a necklace, with a lagoon in the centre, to the complete consolidation, into one firm island. About the tenth parallel, and proceeding easterly from the Carolinas, we have Button, Tindall, Watt’s, and Gilbert’s Islands; and about the longitude 175° east, a whole group, extending to the southward of the equator, named on some charts “Lord Mulgrave’s Range,” on others “Scarborough’s Range some of the individual islands of which are Smith’s, Allen’s, Gillespie’s, Toulmin’s, Hopper’s, Chatham’s, Calvert’s, Robertson’s, Arrowsmith’s, Daniel’s, Marshall’s, Pott’s, near to which are Kingmill’s Group and Byron’s Island, all of coral formation.

Various accounts have been given by Cook, Forster, Flinders, and others, of the progressive formation of these low specks of land, with which the Pacific is studded; but the best and most satisfactory is that by Kotzebue and the naturalist Chamisso. They not only saw the Lord Mulgrave’s chain of islands, which extend from 1° to 12° north, of which Gilbert’s Islands form the northern and Marshall’s Island the southern extremity, but they discovered and examined minutely many other groups and detached islands. Between the eighth and tenth degrees of north latitude, and between longitude 188. 48. and 190. 46., they encountered no less than six distinct groups, to which they understood the natives applied the name of Radack; and they learned that to the westward were nine other groups, and three detached islands, called Ralick, besides four groups to the southward. The Radack chain probably includes those which were seen by Captain Marshall in 1788, and to which he gave the name of Chatham and Calvert Islands, though Kruzenstcm thinks that these arc the same as the Ralick chain. It is not of much importance in a geographical point of view, whatever it might be for the benefit of navigation.

The small size of Kotzebue’s vessel gave him the advantage of sailing through the openings in the circular reefs, and of examining the lagoons within them. From his account, it would seem that the coral-making animals do not commence their labours at the very depth of the ocean, as has been supposed, but on rocky shoals, the summits, in all probability, of submarine mountains, round which they lay the foundation of their extraordinary fibres, forming an united chain, irregular in shape, but generally approaching, more or less, to a circle. The greatest depth at which they are able to derive a sufficient degree of light and heat for their operations has not yet been ascertained; but we know that marine animals have been drawn up in a living state from the depth of a thousand fathoms, and from a temperature very little above that of the freezing point. The outer edge of the reef exposed to the surf of the sea is the first that shows itself above the water; in process of time it becomes indurated, breaks, and crumbles, by the action of the sea, and at length forms a sort of barrier, within the sloping sides of which the living animals arc seen carrying on their operations. Those observed by Chamisso were the Tubipora musica, the Millepora caerulea, obsticho-pora, actimas, and various kinds of the polypus. He found the living branches of the lythophytes generally attached to the dead stems; many of the latter, however, crumbled into sand, which, accumulating on the inner declivity, constitutes no inconsiderable part of the surface of the new islands that rise out of this reef, and are gradually united into one island, having in its centre a salt-water lake, that alternately grows up by a silent and slow progress, till what was at first a chain of islets, has become one connected mass of land. The progress towards a state fit for the habitation of man has been well described by Chamisso.

“As soon as it has reached such a height that it remains almost dry at low water, at the time of ebb, the corals leave off building higher; sea-shells, fragments of coral, seahedgehog shells, and their broken-off prickles, arc united by the burning sun, through the medium of the cementing calcareous sand, which has arisen from the pulverization of the above-mentioned shells into one whole or solid stone, which, strengthened by the continual throwing up of new materials, gradually increases in thickness, till it at last becomes so high that it is covered only during some seasons of the year by the high tides. The heat of the sun so penetrates the mass of stone when it is dry, that it splits in many places, and breaks off in flakes. These flakes, so separated, are raised one upon another by the waves at the time of high water. The always active surf throws blocks of coral (frequently of a fathom in length, and three or four feet thick) and shells of marine animals between and upon the foundation stones; after this, the calcareous sand lies undisturbed, and offers to the seeds of trees and plants, cast upon it by the waves, a soil upon which they rapidly grow, to overshadow its dazzling white surface. Entire trunks of trees, which are carried by the rivers from other countries and islands, find here, at length, a resting place, after their long wanderings; with these come some small animals, such as lizards and insects, as the first inhabitants. Even before the trees form awood, the real sea-birds nestle there; strayed land-birds take refuge in the bushes; and, at a much later period, when the work has been long since completed, man also appears, builds his hut on the fruitful soil formed by the corruption of the leaves of the trees, and calls himself lord and proprietor of this new creation.”

IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.

1. The Friendly Islands. — The Friendly Islands, amongst which may also be included the Feejee Islands, were first discovered by Abel Jansen Tasman in 1643, to three of which he gave the names of Amsterdam, Middleburgh, and Rotterdam. The first of these islands is that which was afterwards visited by Captain Cook, and described by him under the name of Tongataboo; more properly, as we since learn from Mr Mariner, Tonga, the annexed word Tabboo, so extensively used throughout Polynesia, being expressive only of its sacred character. From the inhabitants of this island Tasman received yams, cocoa-nuts, bananas, hogs, and fowls, in exchange for iron, nails, beads, and pieces of linen. They had also plenty of sugar-canes. Women as well as men swam off to the ship, -and it was observed that all the elder dames had the little finger of both bands cut off, but the young women had not. They wore round the middle a covering of mat-work, which reached down to their knees; the rest of the body naked. None of the men would taste wine, and they were ignorant of the use of tobacco; they had no arms of any kind, which led Tasman to conclude that they lived in perpetual peace and friendship.

Tasman next touched at Ammomooka, or, as he called it, Amsterdam Island, in the hope of meeting with better water than on the first, where it was bad and scanty. On landing, they perceived some sixty or seventy persons sitting quietly on the shore, who had no arms of any kind, and appeared to be a harmless and peaceable people. There were, besides, many women and children, the former clothed like those on Amsterdam Island; but they were of a larger size, and as strong in their bodies and limbs as the men. The party was shown to a piece of fresh water not a mile from the shore, about a quarter of a mile in circumference, and about a musket-shot from the north side of the island, [7:18:323] where there was a good sandy bay. Here they watered their ships, and received abundance of provisions, the same in kind as those of the other island. The inhabitants are described as being great thieves, but very friendly. They have large vessels with masts, sails, and outriggers, as well as canoes, and on going into the interior of the island it was observed that all their plantations were laid out in neat and regular order. “There was not,” says Captain Cook, “an inch of waste ground; the roads occupied no more space than was absolutely necessary; the fences did not take up above four inches each, and even this was not wholly lost, for in many were planted some useful trees or plants. It was everywhere the same; change of place altered not the scene; nature, assisted by a little art, nowhere appears in more splendour than here.” The missionaries, too, in 1797, found these islands in as high a state of cultivation and beauty as they appeared to Tasman and to Cook.

A woful difference in their peaceable habits, according to Mr Mariner, has taken place since the visits of these Europeans. In 1799 a revolution took place, and from that time bloody wars and most savage slaughter have desolated these beautiful islands. They were first commenced, as it would appear, by a most atrocious savage, in whom the kingly power was vested, who not only practised the most barbarous cruelties on his subjects, but seized upon the sacred or ecclesiastical power, which had always, as in Japan, been kept separate from the secular arm. The sacred spell being thus broken, which rested solely on public opinion, a complete revolution followed, and from that hour these once happy islands have been the scene of slaughter, famine, and every species of horror and misery. We must not, however, give implicit credit to all that has been stated by Dr Martin, the writer of Mariner’s account of these islands, but rather consider it as a romantic exaggeration of facts and descriptions, similar to that of the Pellew Islands by Mr Keats. There are shades of difference merely between the inhabitants of these and of the neighbouring islands.

In 1833, missionaries were detached from Tahiti, the centre of all the settlements in the South Seas, to these islands. They experienced on their arrival difficulties and discouragements from the barbarous inhabitants; but by perseverance they expect to obtain a footing, and to introduce amongst them the blessings of civilization, as well as into the other islands among these seas.

The Harvey Islands^[2. Miwiojiary Chronicle for September 1826. ] are situated between 19° and 22° south latitude, and 160° west longitude, and are between 500 and 600 miles south-west by west from Otaheite or Tahiti. They consist of the island Manaia or Mangeca, a small island containing only 1000 or 1500 inhabitants; Rarotonga, a much larger island, containing from 6000 to 7000 inhabitants; Aitutake; Mantii or Mante; Mitiaro, a very small island; Atui. Three of these islands are not laid down in any chart. The missionaries, when they first visited them, met with every discouragement, and could scarcely preserve themselves and their wives from the violence of the king. Two missionaries, however, visited these islands in 1823, and two native teachers were also left in 1824; and in the course of two months they had made a hundred and twenty converts. In 1825, these islands were visited by missionaries from this country, and it was found that great progress had been made in civilizing and instructing the inhabitants. Many had learned to read; whilst their idolatrous and cruel practices, such as infanticide, had been abolished. More decent clothing had been adopted by the women, who were no longer so ready to offer themselves for prostitution to crews of foreign vessels when they arrived. An attempt that was made to plant the Christian religion in the Feejee Islands had failed. But a vessel from New South Wales having touched at La-gebain 1829 or 1830, the captain had a friendly conversation with the chief, who requested that a missionary might be sent. A teacher, accordingly, set sail from Otaheite, and landed on these islands in 1830.

In 1830, two missionary teachers were left on the Friendly Islands, in which, though distinct, the Feejee Islands have been included. They were kindly received, but were informed by the king that he could not embrace Christianity until after he had consulted with all the chiefs of the other islands; that they had been erecting a most extensive Morai, about seventy-six feet in height, all of stone, which had given way three times, and which misfortune they ascribed to the power of the new God. Oiìe chief converted by native missionaries, expressed his adherence to the Christian faith, amidst the scoffs, jeers, and even threats of his countrymen.

2. Navigators Islands. —To the north-east of the Feejee, Tonga, or Friendly Islands, are situated the Bauman: or Navigators’ Islands. The first name was given to them after Captain Bauman, of the Teinhoven, by Jacob Roggewein, by whom they were discovered, in 1722; and the latter name was conferred by Bougainville, who passed them in 1768. La Perouse likewise visited these islands, and is of opinion that they are not the same as Bauman’s Islands, because their geographical position does not agree with that assigned to them by Roggewein. Burney, however, has no doubt that they are identical, the only difference being in their supposed longitude, which, in the time of Roggewein, was frequently set down erroneously by several degrees.

These islands form an archipelago, consisting, according to La Perouse, of ten in number, of which Maouna, Oyo-lava, and Pola are the largest and most beautiful. The parallel of 14° south latitude, and the meridian of 190°, pass through the centre of the group. According to the missionaries, these islands, which they also designate as the Samoa Islands, are eight in number, four in the windward group, and four in the leeward group, two much larger than Otaheite, two others noble islands, and the remaining four small, though full of inhabitants. To the largest they gave the appellation of Savai and Upola. They are said by La Pérouse to be volcanic, but surrounded by coral reefs. Roggewein describes the hills and valleys as affording a delightful prospect. The natives came off in boats neatly made and carved, bringing fish, cocoa-nuts, and plantains. They arc said to have white skins, but tanned by the sun, to be gentle in their manners towards each other, lively and good-humoured; their bodies were neither painted nor marked, and they were clothed from the waist downwards; the cultivated grounds were all enclosed; and, in short, they are described by the writer of Roggewein’s voyage as the most civilized and honest people they had met with amongst the islands of the South Sea. We may conclude, indeed, from his account, that they were equally well cultivated, and the inhabitants equally mild and peaceable, with those of the Friendly Islands.

Very different, however, is the account given of them by La Pérouse. Ferocious in the highest degree, he describes them as utterly destitute of gratitude and every good moral feeling; that a look of disdain is stamped on all their countenances; and that they are eternally fighting with each other, so that their bodies are covered with sears occasioned by the blows of clubs. Tall in stature, their limbs are of colossal proportions; and their bodies are tattooed to such a degree as to make them appear clothed, though they have only a girdle of sea-weeds round their loins, which reaches to the knee. The size of the women corresponds with that of the men, and their whole behaviour is represented as highly indeeent and disgusting. They had no desire for iron, preferring their own adzes and other [7:18:324]tools made of basalt. Their huts were made with great nicety, and all their wood-work was highly polished and carved. Their matting and cloth were exceedingly beautiful; the latter woven with thread made from the nettle, and a species of flax. The sails of their boats or canoes were made of this cloth. The islands are so intersected with creeks that they travel from place to place almost universally in canoes, which have outriggers to prevent them from upsetting.

All the islands were clothed with trees up to the very summit of the hyls, many of them laden with fruit. The villages are ranged along the margin of the streams which fall from the mountains, and are built in the midst of groves of cocoa, banana, guava, and other fruit-trees common to the South Sea Islands. The woods abound with wild pigeons and turtle-doves, which are tamed by the natives, and kept about their houses in flocks of many hundreds. Sugar-cane grows abundantly and without culture. Their animals are pigs, dogs, and the domestic fowl; these, and the fish, which they catch with great expertness, afford them an abundant supply of food. These islands were visited for the first time by the missionaries in 1830, who placed eight teachers on the large island of Savai. They were kindly received by the chiefs; and they considered that their prospects of civilizing these islands, and of reclaiming them from idolatry, were very favourable. A fierce war was waging at the time the missionaries landed, between the islands of Upola and Savai, which they interposed with their counsels to appease; and the chiefs promised that they would terminate it, and come and learn from the missionary teachers the word of God. These islands were visited, in 1834, by five missionaries from Otaheite. They were kindly received by the natives, who still continued to express the strongest desire for their instructions, and several of whom had made an open profession of the Christian faith.. Four additional missionaries arrived in these islands at the close of the year 1835; and as their reception was friendly, they had commenced their labours amidst a population of 50,000, with every prospect of success.

3. Society Islands. — The first account of these islands is given in the voyage of Jacob Roggewein, who touched at Ulietea in the year 1722; at least it is conjectured by Burney, on probable grounds, that the Verquickking or Recreation Island of that navigator is the same. On sending a boat on shore, the inhabitants assembled on the beach, and advanced into the water armed with lances to oppose their landing. The Hollanders fired upon them, and having dispersed them, landed on the beach, and the inhabitants returned in a friendly manner, and brought them cocoa-nuts and other articles of food. The Hollanders then advanced up a valley towards the mountains; but some thousands of the natives coming out of the glens and crevices, made signs to them to return. The Hollanders, however, paid no regard, but proceeded, upon which showers of stones were hurled at them, by which some were killed and others wounded. These volleys were answered by a discharge of musketry, which killed many of the islanders, who, nevertheless, continued the action, and finally drove the Dutchmen into their boats. Many of the latter subsequently died of the wounds they had received, in consequence of the bad state of their constitutions, being severely affected with the scurvy.

Captain Cook visited these islands in 1769, and again in 1777. They consist of six in number (besides small coral islets), the names of which are Ulietea and Otaha (both encompassed by the same coral reef), Huaheine, Bolabola, Tubai, and Maurua. They extend from about 16° ’ to 17° south latitude, and from 151° to 152° west longitude. The climate, the productions, and the inhabitants, resemble so nearly those of Otahcite, that the same description will apply to both. The surfaces of all the islands are uneven and hilly, but not mountainous; and the hills are finely wooded. The inhabitants, like those of the Navigators’ Islands, are generally of a larger stature than the Otahci-tans. The late Sir Joseph Banks measured one of the natives of Huaheine, and found him to be six feet three inches and a half in height; and the women are described as generally more handsome and somewhat fairer than those of Otaheite. Bolabola differs from the rest of the islands by having a lofty double-peaked mountain near its centre, apparently volcanic. In Ulietea there is a large Morai, in which a number of jaw-bones are kept as trophies of war. The coral reefs which everywhere surround these islands form numerous safe and commodious harbours for shipping, and refreshments of hogs, fowls, plantains, cocoa-nuts, and yams, are generally to be had in great abundance.

In these islands, the missionaries, though long disappointed, and though their lives were frequently endangered by the contests and revolutions which agitated the country, at last succeeded, by their perseverance and intrepidity, in establishing stations in Huaheine, Ulietea or Raiatea, Taha or Otaha, and Borabora or Bolabola. It was about the year 1817 that a missionary, Williams, landed in Raiatca, where he has laboured ever since with perseverance and fidelity. The inhabitants of Taha are strongly attached to their ancient idolatrous worship. They opposed the introduction of Christianity, and even went to war with the king of Raiatea because he had agreed to renounce idolatry. But they were worsted in the contest, and the king was taken prisoner. Instead, however, of being put to death, as formerly, with cruel tortures, he was humanely treated, which made such a deep impression on his mind that he embraced Christianity; and in 1824, in Raiatea, 178 children had been baptized, and 140 taught to read. In Hua-hcine, missionary stations were also established, and the preachers laboured with success in the conversion of the natives. In 1830, at the public examination of the schools, 370 children were present, all very neatly dressed in European cloth; and many of the chiefs and parents were present on the occasion. The same success attended the efforts of the missionaries in Borabora. But the progress of this moral reformation experienced some serious interruption. The indolent dispositions of the people, from habit or from the heat of the climate, indisposed them to industry; and, from the introduction of spirits, both in Raiatea, Borabora, Huaheine, and in the other islands, they relapsed into all their gross excesses. One of the old chiefs, who had favoured the introduction of the missionaries, having died, his successor, who had resided at Huaheine, was much addicted to intemperance; and a person from Botany Bay having brought ashore a cask of spirits, the slumbering appetite was rekindled, and the people, encouraged by their chief, gave way to almost universal dissipation; and though the introduction of spirits had been prohibited before, they now began to erect stills for distillation in various quarters. The missionaries did all they could to repress this flood of dissipation; and they succeeded at last in putting a stop for a time to the use of spirits. In Borabora and Maupiti, the chief, Mai, desirous of having more than a single wife, left the missionary settlement, attended by a great part of his people; and at their new settlement they abandoned the profession of the Christian religion, and commenced the distillation of ardent spirits. The missionaries, however, do not relax in their labours; though the encouragements are not so great as could be desired, yet they hazard everything, even life itself, in the hope of spreading their doctrines among distant nations. They so far prevailed, that the people agreed to give up the use of spirits; and a law was enacted, inflicting a heavy penalty on any one who should be found engaged in distillation.

4. The Georgian Islands, including Otaheite, &c. — Otaheite is the chief island of this vast group, which extends [7:18:325]over fifteen degrees of longitude, in the direction of southeast. The extreme point is Pitcairn’s Island, lately become interesting on account of the discovery of the descendants of the mutineer Christian and some of his associates. The natives of this vast chain of islands, and particularly of Otaheite, may probably be considered as the most civilized, but, at the same time, the most sensual people in all Polynesia. It was first discovered by Quiros in 1606, and received from him the name of Sagittaria. The natives received the strangers with great kindness, gave them cocoa-nuts and other fruits, and a general interchange of civilities and presents soon took place. This good understanding remained uninterrupted, and the Spaniards, for once, left the island without having quarrelled with the inhabitants. In their zeal, however, they committed an act which, if discovered, might have been attended with unpleasant circumstances. The place at which they first landed was uninhabited, but in passing through a wood they discovered a Morai, in which they concluded “the enemy of mankind resided ;” and, under this impression, cut down a tree, which they formed into a cross, and planted in the midst of the sacred building.

In 1765, Commodore Byron discovered two low islands to the northward of Otaheite, which, in honour of his majesty, he named George’s Islands, one of which, afterwards visited by Cook, is called Tiookea. The natives of these islands were very dark coloured, robust, and apparently ferocious; and their bodies were marked with the figure of a fish.

In 1767, Captain Wallis touched at Otaheite, and went through the ceremony of taking possession of the island in the name of his sovereign; but the flag was removed by the natives in the night. Various squabbles occurred between the seamen and the natives, who, however, behaved on the whole with great kindness and hospitality. Most of the quarrels were owing to the licentious intercourse of the seamen with the native women. In 1768, Μ. de Bougainville visited Otaheite, and was most hospitably received; in return for which several murders were committed by the French seamen. Captain (then Lieutenant) Cook anchored in Matavai Bay in April 1769. It is from this and his several subsequent visits, together with a missionary voyage in the ship Duff, commanded by Captain Wilson, 1796- 1798, that Otaheite is so well known to us.

The island consists of two peninsulas, connected by a low isthmus, about three miles in width, covered with brushwood. The larger, Otaheite Nove, is about ninety miles in circumference, and nearly circular; the smaller, Tiaraboo, is about thirty miles; the whole nearly surrounded by a low belt of land, from a furlong to a mile in width, which is prolonged by a gradual rise to the valleys, which run up to the foot of the lofty central mountain. These valleys and their intermediate ridges are beautiful, clothed with a great variety of trees to their very summits; in the valleys are mostly met with clear streams of water, which, in the rainy season, become mountain-torrents. The island, being surrounded with coral reefs, is dangerous to approach, and the only safe harbour is that of Matavai, on the northern side, in latitude 17. 30. south, longitude 149.13. west. This too is not free from danger from December to March. The climate is delightful, the thermometer seldom rising above 80° in summer, and ranging from 62° to 72° in winter.

The island is so fertile as to produce everything in abundance, and without toil, for the sustenance of man. The bread-fruit is here superior to that which grows on the other islands. The fruit affords them a most nutritive food, either for present use, or made into a paste called mahie, which will keep till the following season; the trunk supplies them with timber for their buildings and canoes. It exudes a gum, which serves for pitch; and from the inner bark is manufactured a substantial cloth. They reckon no less than thirty varieties of this most useful tree, which, with the different exposures to the trade-winds, and the difference of elevation above the sea, afford to the natives a bread-fruit harvest at almost all seasons of the year. The cocoa-nut, next to the bread-fruit, supplies them with meat, drink, cloth, and oil. Of plantains, they reckon fifteen different sorts. Yams and sweet potatoes, taro-root of different kinds, and various other edible roots and fruits, are most abundantly produced; to which our missionaries have added the pine-apple, the grape, and various culinary vegetables of Europe; but the natural and spontaneous productions of the soil, and the consequent indolence of the people, are unfavourable to their success.

The animals found on the island are hogs, dogs, and rats. Several attempts have been made to introduce the horse, and horned cattle, sheep, and goats, but without success. The latter are so disliked for their smell and the mischief they did to their plantations, that they drove them into the mountains, where they run wild. The breed of cats has succeeded, and they are found to be extremely useful; and rabbits have been introduced, but we know not with what success. Common poultry are abundant, and the woods supply vast quantities of wild pigeons and parrots. The tropical bird builds its nest in the steep cliffs, and as its long feathers are highly valued, it is taken on the ncst by lowering down a man seated across a stick, by a rope, to the depth of thirty or forty fathoms; in which situation, by means of a long pole, he swings himself from side to side, examining all the holes as he descends, in order to take the bird on her nest. The shores abound with sea-fowl, and the sea with excellent fish, which they take with great expertness by hook and line, or by the net. Dolphins are caught at a distance from the shore, by baiting the hook with a real or artificial fiying fish. Their fishing-tackle displays the , greatest ingenuity, and can only be exceeded by their skill in using it. Their hooks are made of pearl-shells, bone, and hard wood. The coast abounds with lobsters, crabs, and various kinds of shell-fish.

The colour of the natives is that of olive, or light copper. The men are above the middle size; the chiefs are almost uniformly tall, muscular, and well limbed, measuring from five feet nine inches to six feet four inches, and continue healthy and vigorous to a good old age. The women of the upper ranks are likewise tall, with limbs finely turned. Their skins are soft and delicate; their eyes black, sparkling, and full of expression; their teeth beautifully white and even; their hair jet black, and generally ornamented with flowers; and in their gait they are firm, but easy and graceful. From a custom of compressing the face when infants, they can scarcely be called beauties; yet, according to the account of Captain Wilson, they possess feminine graces in an eminent degree; “their faces never being darkened with a scowl, or covered with a cloud of sullenness or suspicion.” They are affable and engaging; mild, gentle, and unaffected; courteous to each other and to strangers. The whole of the body to the middle of the leg is clothed; but there is a singular custom which compels a woman to uncover her shoulders and breasts in the presence of a chief, or in passing a Moral or sacred place. The lower classes have always been described as extremely licentious, but Captain Cook says they have been much calumniated. “It is too true,” say the writers of the Missionary Voyage, “that, for the sake of gaining our extraordinary curiosities, and to please our brutes, they have appeared immodest in the extreme. Yet they lay the charge wholly at our door, and say the Englishmen are ashamed at nothing, and that we have led them to public acts of indecency never before practised amongst themselves.” It must be admitted, however, that the most abandoned conduct is freely indulged by the women of the Arreoy society, who, to the crime of unbounded licentiousness, add that of mur∙
[7:18:326]

dering their children the moment they are born. In recent accounts, however, it is stated that this horrible practice has been abolished, and that Christianity is making a rapid progress amongst these interesting islanders. As wives, the Otaheitan women are tenderly affectionate to their husbands and children, nursing and attending the latter with the utmost care. They never, on any occasion, strike a child. A melancholy instance of the fidelity and affection of one of these women is given in the Missionary Voyage. “The history of Peggy Stewart marks a tenderness of heart that never will be heard without emotion. She was daughter of a chief, and taken for his wife by Mr Stewart, one of the unhappy mutineers of the Bounty. They had lived with the old chief in the most tender state of endearment; a beautiful little girl had been the fruit of their union, and was at the breast when the Pandora arrived, seized the criminals, and secured them in irons on board the ship. Frantiewith grief, the unhappy Peggy flew with her infant in a canoe to the arms of her husband. The interview was so affecting and afflicting, that the officers on board were overwhelmed with anguish; and Stewart himself, unable to bear the heart-rending scene, begged she might not be admitted again on board. She was separated from him by violence, and conveyed on shore in a state of despair and grief too big for utterance. Withheld from him, and forbidden to come any more on board, she sunk into the deepest dejection; it preyed on her health, she lost all relish for food and life, rejoiced no more, and pining under a rapid decay of two months, fell a victim to her feelings, dying literally of a broken heart.”

The Otaheitans are generouseven to a fault; they seem to be utterly unable to resist importunities, and always ready to share their last morsel with thch' neighbours. Poverty is no reproach, but affluence with covetousness brings contempt on the possessor. Should any one, indeed, refuse to share his property in eases of distress, the chances are that it will be destroyed, and his house pulled down over his head. The office of king is hereditary in one family; the chiefs resemble our ancient barons; under them are the vassals, and below them the vUleins or labourers. The king and queen enjoy many privileges, one of which is, to be carried about everywhere on men’s shoulders; and the reason of this is, that whatever soil they tread upon becomes sacred, and belongs to them; so also, if they enter a house, it is rendered sacred, and becomes their property. Their domestics and attendants are also raa, or sacred, and for thieving, plunder, and all manner of licentiousness, they are said to be the worst on the island.

In the Missionary Voyage an account is given of the ceremony of investing the new sovereign with the royal maro, when each chief of the island, amounting to nearly one hundred, brings one, two, or three human victims, to offer up on the occasion. They are brought before the sovereign in a lifeless state, having first been stoned to death, or knocked on the head with clubs. From each of these victims the priest scoops out an eye, and presents it to the king on a plantain leaf, and the bodies are then earned away and interred in the Morai. The reason assigned for this oblation is, that the head being accounted sacred, and the eye the most precious part, it is presented to the king as the head and eye of the people. During the presentation, the king holds his mouth open, as if devouring it, whereby it is imagined he receives additional wisdom and discernment. The royal niaro i and the sacred canoes which brought the human sacrifices, are then deposited in the Morai; after which a series of feasts begin, which continue for two months. These abominable rites, if not entirely abolished, have in a great degree ceased by the influence of the missionaries.

In their language and their deities may be traced their Hindu origin; and though their religion is a tissue of superstitious and brutal ceremonies, they never draw near to their Eatova with carelessness and inattention. Captain Cook testifies to the decorous conduct of an Otaheitan on such occasions: “He is all devotion; he approaches the place of worship with reverential awe, uneovers when he treads on sacred ground, and prays with a fervour that would do honour to a better profession.”

The early visits of the European navigators to these islands produced no advantages whatever to the inhabitants, who were only contaminated by· the vices, without participating in the blessings, of civilized life. But, in later years, the visits of the missionaries to this and the other islands were solely for the purpose of improving the inhabitants, and of spreading among them the light of knowledge and of truth. A great improvement has in consequence taken place in the manners as well as in the morals of these savages. It was in the year 1796 that the London Missionary Society sent out their first missionaries to Otaheite, and to the South Seas. Their object was to communicate the knowledge of Christianity to the natives, who gladly received them, as well as several others who were afterwards sent out in the year 1800. The missionaries were, however, involved in serious trouble in 1799, from the thievish habits and riotous dispositions of the natives; and several of them were compelled to take refuge in New South Wales, whence they afterwards returned to Otaheite. Their prospects were for a long time uncertain and precarious; and they laboured with very little success to draw the attention of the natives from their cruel rites and superstitions to the purer faith of the gospel. About the year 1814, they began, however, to make some eon-verts. In the neighbouring island of Eimeo, about fifty persons voluntarily renounced idolatry, and embraced Christianity. These first converts were continually increased by new accessions, until the great body of the inhabitants, as well as those in seven or eight of the neighbouring islands, embraced Christianity, and renounced their former impure and idolatrous rites. They now assemble regularly for public worship, as decently attired as they can afford, in congregations of four or five hundred, and occasionally seven or eight hundred persons. Their imitation of the European dress is not, however, always the most successful. They are extremely fond of gaudy colours; and the east-off clothes of soldiers are in particular request. Sometimes a coat is worn without a shirt or any other article of European apparel; and frequently not fitting, the effect is rather ludicrous. Along with religion, they are also instructed in all the mechanical trades of Europe; they are taught to read, write, and to east accounts, the natives with singular industry teaching each other. Great numbers have been taught to read in the Tahitian language, which the missionaries have reduced to writing; and the Scriptures have also been translated into the native language of the island, in which language also the missionaries began to preach in 1824. A great reformation has followed the propagation of Christianity throughout the island. The bloody, ferocious, and profligate practices of the Arreoy societies have been abolished; the crime of infanticide has disappeared; and human sacrifiées are also abandoned, with many other idolatrous and degrading superstitions and practices. Many of the other improvements of civilized life have been adopted. The dwellings of the chiefs have been enlarged and beautified; a distinct house has been assigned to each family, in place of their being, as formerly, all crowded into one house. Land has been cultivated, and the sugar-cane raised in some districts; and the cotton cultivation has also been commenced. This island is now frequently visited by European ships, and civilization is advancing.

It was in the year 1815 that idolatry was formally abolished in this island, under the influence of Pomare, the king, who, though his character was defective in many points, being [7:18:327]addicted to intemperance and other vices, was nevertheless steady in his friendship to the missionaries, and protected them in their efforts to introduce civilization into the country. He was anxious also to be instructed in reading and writing; and his example has contributed to diffuse a desire for knowledge among others. Schools have been established by the wives of the missionaries, where instruction is given in sewing, in reading, and writing. In these accomplishments many of the females have made considerable proficiency; and, siβce 1815, reading and writing has become general among the natives. A great change has also been made in the costume; the English dress has, as far as possible, been invariably adopted, by the women especially, who appear with frills round their necks, with caps on their heads, and stockings and shoes on their feet; and their other garments are also of European materials. The men, however, showed great awkwardness in first adopting the European costume; sometimes -wearing stockings on their arms, or thrusting their arms through the legs of a pair of pantaloons, and wearing them on their shoulders, or wearing a coat without a shirt, as observed by the Russian navigators, or wearing a shirt on the outside of the dress. The progress of improvement, however, is begun, and will advance; and in time society in these islands will assume the aspect of civilized life. Pomare, the king of Otaheite, and the first convert to Christianity, which he professed in 1812, was born about the year 1774. He died in the year 1821, and was immediately succeeded by his son Pomare IIL, who was crowned with no small pomp in 1824, being then only four years of age. Shortly after his coronation he was placed at the South Sea academy in the island of Eimeo, under the care of Mr and Mrs Orsmund, for the purpose of receiving, with the children of the Missionaries, an English education. He died in 1827, of a lingering disorder, then prevalent in the islands, and was succeeded by a daughter of Pômare II., who still reigns. The monarchy is despotic, nor does it afford any adequate security for life or property. Even Pomare, notwithstanding all his apparent religious zeal, occasionally plundered his subjects, and seized their property by main force. A long era of moral improvement must elapse before any proper form of civil order, or anything like free institutions, can be established in these islands.^[3. Missionary Chronicle for April 1835, p. 168, Letter of Mr Williams. ]

The missionaries accordingly experienced, after the gloss of novelty had worn off' their religion, a considerable defection of their proselytes; and for a time their fair prospects of usefulness were overcast. At first the natives appeared zealous in their attachment to the Christian creed, and schools and congregations multiplied in all quarters. The same success attended the efforts of the missionaries in the neighbouring islands of Eimeo and Huaheine. In a short time, however, the people began to relapse into their former course of licentiousness, and other evil practices; and the letters of the missionaries themselves contain a full and candid account of these defections. Many of the converts, they observe, grew weary of the restraints which Christianity imposed on their passions; and the introduction of ardent spirits, the licentious example and the debauchery of the European sailors when vessels touched at the islands, the propagation of delusions among the people by visionaries, and finally a bloody war which broke out in Otaheite, completed the corruption and the defection of many converts. Another difficulty has arisen from the previous irregular and indolent habits of the natives. “A state of society,” it is observed, “more dissolute, and opposed to steady application and industry, than that which prevailed among them prior to the renunciation of idolatry, cannot well be imagined ∙, and although the general and continued operation of those propensities which heathenism had nurtured and matured was restrained almost universally when the islanders first professed Christianity, numbers being influenced by the excitement of feeling in favour of the new religion, which then appeared to pervade all classes, many afterwards relapsed into their former evil practices, and have remained destitute of everything connected with Christianity excepting the name. These found, as might have been expected, their former inclinations too strong to be restrained by the feeble resistance which public opinion interposed; and though they did not revive the worship of the idols or cruelties of human sacrifices, they returned, in a great degree, to their former indolence and vices.”^[4. See the Evangelical Magazine, and also the Missionary Chronicle for September 1832, p. 407. In the Evangelical Magazine for November 1833, the difficulties of the missionaries are very fairly stated. “The difficulties,” it is observed, “attending the progress of the work in which our brethren are engaged have been frequently stated to the friends of the society. These have arisen from the natural indolence and fickleness of the natives, the effects of their former notorious licentiousness, which so many attempts have been made to revive; and the appearance of gross and visionary heresies, whereby a number of individuals, disaffected towards the requirements of the gospel, have sought, by pretended supernatural revelation, to counteract or destroy the effects which the word of God was producing among the people, in elevating the tone of moral feeling, and improving their social character and habits. In recent years, difficulties more formidable than any produced by these causes have arisen from other quarters; the increasing number of ships resorting to the islands for refreshments and traffic, and, with the increase of commerce, consequent profligacy, from the increased intercourse of seamen with the most depraved portions of native society; and the large importations of ardent spirits in English and American vessels, chiefly the latter, consisting of what is denominated New England rum, many vessels conveying this, and, with the exception of fire-arms and ammunition, no other article of barter with which to traffic among the natives. The activity and perseverance manifested in promoting the sale and use of these pernicious drugs, by hawking them about the islands, inducing the chiefs to engage in trade, and the establishment, by foreigners who have left ships touching at the islands, of a number of grog-shops on the shore, have occasioned the missionaries much perplexity and distress. By the retail of ardent spirits, these houses become the greatest pests in the country, the resort of the most abandoned in the islands, and the most indolent and depraved among the crews of the shipping, proving alike seductive and injurious to all within their influence, and exhibiting, in the conduct of foreigners, scenes of outrage and bloodshed unknown amongst the natives since their renunciation of paganism.” ] The missionaries have spared no pains to counteract this tendency to vice. They have established throughout the island temperance societies, and have prevailed on the chiefs to restrain the importation of spirits. The Queen Pomare, and most of the chiefs, who show an ardent desire for the instruction of the people, have joined these societies, and have countenanced the efforts of the missionaries, who have in some degree succeeded in stemming the torrent of profligacy which was inundating these countries, and was fast sweeping away all traces of that purer morality which had been planted among the natives. “The demon of intemperance,” says one of the missionaries, “which brought moral sterility and desolation, nipping and stunting the young plants of promise, has again disappeared; our fears have been dispelled.”^[5. Evangelical Magazine for August 1837, p. 395. ] But, even after all the defections that have taken place, a letter, dated April 1836, mentions that there are two thousand natives in church-fellowship; that two thirds of the people can read; that a great number have learned to write; and that the schools and chapels are well attended. In the different islands there are thirty-nine stations, thirty-seven schools, seven thousand scholars, and thirty-nine congregations consisting of twenty-two thousand attendants. A letter from one of the missionaries[7:18:328] mentions that he had seen Queen Pomare in the midst of a group of little girls, teaching them words of one and two syllables.

One most important benefit which has been conferred upon these islands, and a great step in the progress of improvement, has been the commencement of trade and manufactures. A number of natives have been taught to spin, and to weave the cotton into cloth, to make soap and salt, to prepare tobacco, to manufacture sugar; also a knowledge of rope-making, turnery, carpentry, and the art of working in iron. Some are employed as smiths, others in the preparation of lime, and in the construction of neat and comfortable dwcllings, and also in boat and ship-building, in which many of them are adepts.

They have also begun to carry on commerce. A number of small vessels, built by the natives, of from twenty to thirty-five tons burden, are employed in fetching from a group of islands, situated two or three hundred miles eastward, cargoes of pearl-shell, which they dispose of to the English and American traders. The last returns of the trade to Otaheite mention 154 arrivals in 1836 at the port of Honolu, the capital, of which eighty are brigs and schooners belonging to the country, fifty-six to the United States, and seventeen to Great Britain.

5. The Marquesas —This cluster of islands was discovered by Alvarodc Mendana in 1595, and named by him Las Marquesas de Mendoca, in honour of the viceroy of Peru. Four only are described by Quiros the pilot, under the names of La Dominica, Santa Christina, San Pedro, and La Madalena. The Spaniards anchored in a port of Santa Christina, to which they gave the name of Madre de Dios, well protected from the trade-wind, and which has two excellent streams of fresh water flowing into it. The people are described as being an elegant race; the women in particular as remarkably beautiful, their complexions and general appearance being said to excel those of the women of Lima. Their dress consisted of a cloth made of the leaves of a palm-tree, with which they were covered from the breast downwards; and so civilly disposed were they, that a beautiful native woman seated herself by the side of Donna Isabel, the wife of Mendana, arid began to fan her. But the Spaniards, as usual, found means to quarrel with the natives, and to drive them with their fire-arms into the woods.

The produce of the islands was hogs, fowls, fish, cocoa-nuts, sugar-canes, plantains, and the bread-fruit, which is described for the first time by the writer of this voyage.

Subsequent discoveries have made us nearly as well acquainted with the Marquesas as with Otaheite. Captain Cook visited them in 1774, and Captain Wilson in 1797. From these we know that they consist of eight in number, besides some smaller islands to the westward, which being seen by an American master of the name of Ingraham, he called them Washington’s Islands. They had previously been seen, however, by Marchand in 1789, and may fairly be grouped as part of the Marquesas. The centre of the group may be reckoned in about the latitude of 9. 30. south, and longitude 139. 30. west.

The manners, the religious ceremonies, the Morais, and the general appearance of the natives, are so similar to those of Otaheite, that a description of them would amount to little more than a repetition of what has already been said. They have all the good qualities of the natives of that island, and most of their bad ones; but, owing probably to a more restricted communication with strangers, a greater degree of simplicity was observable in their manners, on the first arrival of the missionaries amongst them, than in the people of Otaheite. Scarcely had they anchored in Resolution Bay (Madre de Dios), when two women, though it was dark, swam off to the ship, in the hope of meeting a favourable reception, calling out in a piteous tone, when they found they could not be admitted on board, Waheené, waheene! “We are women, we are women.” The next morning the visit was repeated, and is thus described in the Missionary Voyage:

“Our first visitors from the shore came early; they were seven beautiful young women, swimming quite naked, except a few green leaves tied round their middle; they kept playing round the ship for three hours, calling Waheene, until several of the native men had got on board; one of them, being the chief of the island, requested that his sister might be taken on board, which was complied with. She was of a fair complexion, inclining to a healthy yellow, with a tint of red in her cheek; was rather stout, but possessing such symmetry of features, as did all her companions, that as models for the statuary and painter their equals can seldom be found.” Captain Wilson says, that an Otaheitan woman which they had on board was far eclipsed by the Marquesan woman; but she was shocked to see a woman quite naked walking the deck, and threw over her a dress of Otaheitan cloth; but as for the rest of these females, the goats, it seems, soon stripped them of their green leaves, and left them in a state of complete nudity. On shore the women clothe themselves in decent habits.

The Marquesans are so far superior to the Otaheitans, that they sacrifice hogs only to their deities, and never men. Their houses, canoes, their dress, and the cultivation of their land, are at least equal to those of Otaheite, and they have none of those infamous Arreoy societies. Captain Porter of the American frigate Essex, after brutally massacring a number of these people upon the most frivolous pretext, charges them with cannibalism, though, from his own account, there does not appear to be the slightest ground for so injurious an imputation. To all unprejudiced navigators they have appeared as an amiable people, entertaining a great respect for old age, fond of their children instead of murdering them, as in Otaheite and Some other islands, and living in peace and harmony with each other, and with their families.

These islands were visited by the missionaries, several of whom have settled amongst the natives. But it does not appear that their labours, though zealously pursued, havè hitherto been attended with the desired success. The state of the people, it is said in the Missionary Magazine for April 1837, “is not that of open opposition or enmity against the gospel, but of apathy and unconcern, strengthened by deeply-rooted habits of worldliness and vice ;” and the journals of the missionaries entirely agree with this account. It is with difficulty that they procure, at their several stations, a congregation of above eight persons on Sundays; sometimes they amount to twenty, but generally they pay little attention to the instructions of their teacher, and scarcely preserve decorum during the worship, conversing with each other about their ordinary concerns, and pursuing all their worldly occupations after the worship is finished. The missionaries are, however, resolved to persevere in their plans, in the hope that they may, as in the other islands, succeed in time in making an impression on the barbarous natives.^[6. Missionary Magazine for April, May, August, Ĭ837,"p∙ i95 > 231, 395. ] The distillation of spirits, which the people had been taught by a native of the Sandwich Islands, proved an additional obstacle to the success of the missionaries, as their eagerness to plunge into this vice shut their ears to all spiritual instruction.

6. Easter Island. — This small island, not thirty miles in .length, is only deserving of notice from its solitary position, its great distance from any of the islands of the Pacific, its comparative proximity to the coast of South America, and its being inhabited by a race of men who differ no more from the rest of the Polynesians than they do from [7:18:329]one another; having the same language, the same features, the same religious notions, and Morais constructed as they generally are in other islands. On the platforms of the latter are erected shapeless and uncouth masses of stone, carved in imitation of the human bust, with rude faces four or five feet in length, set on trunks of ten or twelve feet in height. Kotzebue, the last visiter to this island, looked, however, in vain for any traces of these statues on the spots where they are described by Cook and La Pérouse.

This island is supposed to have been discovered by the bucaneer Davis, in 1687, although some have contended for the Dutch Admiral Roggewein being the discoverer,.and he it was who gave it the name of Paaschen or Easter Island, having first seen it on the day of that feast. Its latitude is 27. 5. south, and longitude 109. 46. west.

It is not remarkably fertile; but few trees are found on it, and no running stream. The natives are very industrious in raising food for their support, which consists chiefly of bananas, taro-roots, sugar-canes, sweet potatoes, and yams. By some navigators they are described as a very savage people, and by others as a mild and amiable race. The fact is, that their conduct has always corresponded with the treatment thôy received from strange visiters. Thus their decided hostility to Kotzebue, when he attempted to land on the island, was explained on his arrival at the Sandwich Islands. An American, commanding a schooner called the Nancy, from New London, had observed a vast multitude of seals on the shores of the small uninhabited island of Massafuero, to the westward of Juan Fernandez; and thinking it might turn out an excellent speculation, if a small establishment were formed on the island, to carry on the fishing, he set about the means of carrying this project into effect. His own crew was but just sufficient to navigate the vessel, and, there being no anchorage off the island, no part of it could be spared to catch seals. The brutal wretch therefore proceeded to Easter Island, and landing at Cook’s Bay, seized and carried off twelve men and ten women to people his new colony. For the first three days they were confined in irons, and were not released till fairly out of sight of land, when the first use they made of their liberty was to jump overboard, choosing rather to perish in the waves than to be carried away they knew not whither, or for what purpose. The women, who were with difficulty restrained from following them, were carried to Massafuero, but what ultimately became of these poor creatures Μ. Kotzebue does not relate. No wonder, then, that such base and inhuman practices should have driven the natives to acts of hostility against all foreign intruders.

Since this general view of the Polynesian Islands was prepared, every voyager across the Pacific has made the discovery of additional groups of coral islands or reefs, or single islets just emerging above the surface of the ocean. The progressive increase of these wonderful fabrics would seem to require time only to choak up the whole Pacific. The reflections made by Kotzebue, on viewing these new creations, are as just as they are natural. “The spot on which I stood filled me with astonishment, and I adored in silent admiration the omnipotence of God, who had given, even to those minute animals, the power to construct such a work. My thoughts were confounded, when I considered the immense series of years that must elapse before such an island can rise from the fathomless abyss of the ocean, and become visible on the surface. At a future period they will assume another shape; all the islands will join and form a circular slip of earth, with a pond or lake in the circle; and this form will again change, as these animals continue building, till they reach the surface, and then the water will one day vanish, and only one great island be visible. It is a strange feeling to walk about on a living island, when all below is actively at work. And to what corner of the earth can we penetrate where human beings are not already to be found? In the remotest regions of the earth, amidst mountains of ice, under the burning suri of the equator, nay, even in the middle of the ocean, on islands which have been formed by animals, they are met with.”

But not to islands alone are the operations of these zoophytes confined. Flinders found the coral reefs extending for seven hundred miles along the eastern coast of Australia, and Torres Strait is nearly choked up with them, and must in time become unnavigable. As Captain Fitzroy crossed the Pacific in the Beagle, it is to be hoped that his attention has been drawn to this curious and interesting subject; and that in his forthcoming work, or that of Mr Darwen, who accompanied him, the public will receive additional information respecting these little animals and their operations. (μ.) ∙