PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 291 



ever, sufficiently accounts for the contented state of 

 the population in this respect. 



Their occupations are few, and in general only YomJ' 

 such as are necessary to existence or to the grati- 

 fication of vanity. In our repeated visits to their 

 huts we found them engaged either in preparing 

 their meals, plaiting straw-bonnets, stringing the 

 smallest kinds of beads to make rings for the fingers 

 or the ears, playing the Jew's harp, or lolling about 

 upon their mats ; the princess excepted, whose 

 greatest amusement consisted in turning a hand- 

 organ. The indolence of these people has ever been 

 notorious, and has been a greater bar to the success 

 of the missionaries than their previous faith. The 

 fate of the experiment on the cotton in Eimeo is an 

 exemplification of this. It is well known that the 

 land was cleared, and the cotton planted and grown, 

 but the perseverance to clean the crop, to make it 

 marketable, was wanting; and finding no sale for 

 the article in its rude state, they forbore to cultivate 

 it the next year. A small portion, however, was 

 picked by way of experiment : the missionaries 

 taught the girls to spin, and even furnished them 

 with a loom, and instructed them in the use of it, 

 upon condition that they should weave fifty yards 

 of cloth for the king, and fifty for themselves. The 

 novelty of the employment at first brought many 

 pupils, but they would not persevere, and not one 

 was found who fulfilled the engagement. The pro- 

 portion due to the king was wove, but not as much 

 more as would make a single gown, and the pupils, 

 after a dispute regarding their wages, abandoned 

 the employment about the period of our arrival. 

 " Why should we work ?" they would say to us ; 



u 2 



