MISCELLANIES. 
and beautifully formed, their faces 
beaming with smiles, and un- 
ruffled good humour, but wearing 
a degree of modesty and bashful- 
ness, that would do honour to the 
most virtuous nation on earth; 
their teeth, like ivory, were re- 
gular and beautiful, without a 
single exception; and all of them, 
both male and female, had the 
most marked English features.— 
The clothing of the young females 
consisted of a piece of linen reach- 
ing from the waist to the knees, 
and generally a sort of mantie 
thrown loosely over the shoulders, 
and hanging as low as the ancles; 
but this covering appeared tobe in- 
tended chiefly as a protection a- 
gainst the sun and the weather, as 
it was frequently laid aside—and 
then the upper part of the body 
was entirely exposed; and it is not 
possible to conceive more beauti- 
ful forms than they exhibited.— 
They sometimes wreath caps or 
bonnets for the head, in the most 
tasty manner, to protect the face 
from the rays of the sun; and 
though, as Capt. Pipon observes, 
they have only had the instruction 
of their Otaheitan mothers, “ our 
dress-makers in London would be 
delighted with the simplicity, and 
yet elegant taste, of these un- 
_ taught females.’’ 
Their native modesty, assisted 
by a proper sense of religion and 
morality instilled into their youth- 
ful minds by John Adams, has 
hitherto preserved these inierest- 
ing people perfectly chaste and 
free from all kinds of debauchery. 
Adams assured the visitors that 
since Christian’s death there had 
not been a single instance of any 
young woman proving unchaste ; 
nor any attempt at seduction on 
the part of the men. They all la~ 
519 
bour while young in the cultiva- 
tion of the ground; and when 
possessed of a sufficient quantity 
of cleared land, and of stock to 
maintain a family, they are allow- 
ed to marry, but always with the 
consent of Adams, who unites 
them by a sort of marriage cere- 
mony of his own. 
The greatest harmony prevailed 
in this litle society; their only 
quarrels, and these rarely hap- 
pened, being, according to their 
own expression, quarrels of the 
mouth: they are honest in their 
dealings, which consist of barter- 
ing different articles for mutual 
accommodation. 
Their habitations are extremely 
neat. The little village of Pit- 
cairn forms a pretty square, the 
houses at the upper end of which 
are occupied by the patriarch John 
Adams and his family, consisting 
of his old blind wife and three 
daughters from fifteen to eighteen 
years of age, and a boy of eleven ; 
a daughter of his wife by a for- 
mer husband, and a son-in-law. 
On the opposite side is the dwell- 
ing of Thursday October Chris- 
tian; and in the centre isa smooth 
verdant lawn, on which the poul- 
try are let loose, fenced in so as 
to prevent the intrusion of the do- 
mestic quadrupeds. All that was 
done was obviously undertaken on 
a settled plan, unlike to any thing 
tobe met with on the other islands. 
In their houses, too, they hada 
good deal of decent furniture, con- 
sisting of beds laid upon bedsteads, 
with neat covering ; they had also 
tables, and large chests, to con- 
tain their valuables and clothing, 
which is made from the bark of a 
certain tree, prepared chiefly by 
the elder Otaheitan females, *- 
Adams’s house consisted of two 
