INFLUENCE OF THE MISSIONARIES. 175 
ments, were executed with the greatest exact- 
ness on their bodies. Pantaloons being articles 
in particular request among them, he who 
could not obtain a pair, comforted himself by 
having the representation of them etched on 
his legs. Many of these are still to be seen. 
We much wished to have had an opportunity 
of comparing the soz-disant Christian Tahaitians, 
with the heathen inhabitants of the mountains; 
but it would have taken too much time to seek 
them out in their retreats, which they leave 
only at night for the purpose of robbing the 
dwellers in the valleys, among whom they dare 
not appear in the day. 
If the religion of the Missionaries has neither 
tended to enlighten the Tahaitians nor to render 
them happy, just as little can be expected 
from the Constitution founded upon it, which 
seems adapted only to draw yet tighter the 
bonds in which this amiable people are held 
by their zealous converters, and to retain them 
wholly under their authority. 
By the influence of Wilson, a small house 
situated on Cape Venus was cleared for our 
astronomical observations: we were told it 
