A HISTORY OF TAHITI 



459 



In old days beautiful bowls, pillows and seats were carved by the 

 natives out of single pieces of wood, but these also were doomed when 

 brought into competition with even the crudest articles of European 

 manufacture, and moreover their symbolism was repugnant to the new 

 regime, for it maintained the memories of old traditions. 



Easter Island Stoxe Image in the Garden of the Estate of John Brandek, Esq., 



AT Papeete, Tahiti. 



It should be said that in 1818 the missionaries sought to introduce 

 such civilized employments as the manufacture of cotton cloth, and the 

 cultivation of sugar, coffee and tobacco, and the making of lime for 

 the concrete required in the construction of the ugly, stuffy, little stone 

 houses which were intended to supplant the well-ventilated native 

 thatch. They even went so far as to import a Mr. Gyles from Jamaica 

 to introduce the manufaeture of sugar from the cane. He succeeded, 

 but Pomare and the chiefs became fearful that should the industry 

 prove commercially profitable foreign men-of-war would descend upon 



