280 VOYAGE TO THE 



means of which they awed the lower classes of the 

 community, be brought into contempt, they would 

 1826.' be left with no other superiority than that conferred 

 by bodily strength ; for in education, and not un- 

 frequently even in wealth, their advantages were 

 very limited. Pomarree, in framing his laws to meet 

 the new circumstances of his subjects, seems to have 

 been too zealous in pressing his reforms in this as 

 well as in many other points. It would be ridicu- 

 lous to advocate the perpetuation of customs fit only 

 for the darkest ages of barbarism ; but it might pro- 

 bably not be unwise to retain in the earlier progress 

 towards improvement such as are least objection- 

 able ; particularly in a country like Otaheite, where 

 their observance had been enforced with the great- 

 est rigour. The effect produced by the abolition of 

 that most detestable of all their pagan rites, human 

 sacrifice, is noticed by Mr. Ellis in his Polynesian 

 Researches, to have endangered the royal authority.* 

 In the course of the day several chiefs came on 

 board, dressed in white shirts and straw hats ; and 

 were all remarkable for their extraordinary height 

 and noble appearance. Whether this superiority of 

 stature is the result of the better quality of their 

 food, or whether, by the commission of infanticide, 

 their parents have preserved only the largest or 

 most healthy children, and bestowed upon them a 

 more careful nursing than may have fallen to the 

 lot of their vassals, I cannot say, but it is beyond a 

 doubt that the advantage which their chiefs enjoyed 

 in this respect had a strong influence on the minds of 



* He says (vol. ii. p. 378.) that " many, free from the restraint 

 it (human sacrifice) had imposed, seemed to refuse almost all law- 

 ful obedience and rightful support to the kin^." 



