1G4 REMARKS AND OPINIONS. 



tree. In the populous groups oi' Kawen and Aur, 

 orcliards are frequently surrounded with a cord in- 

 stead of a fence. 



Besides providing for their subsistence, our 

 friends have no other employment but their navi- 

 gation and singing. Their favourite, their only 

 property, are their boats and their drum, which are 

 their play-things in childhood. It is particularly 

 in the evening, when they assemble in a circle round 

 their bright fire, that they sit singing their favourite 

 songs. Intoxicating joy then seizes every one and 

 all join their voices in the chorus. These songs 

 resemble those of the Owhyeeans, but they are 

 ruder and more discordant ; the gradually rising 

 tones of the song degenerate at last into a scream. 



It was first and principally in the group of Otdia 

 that we became acquainted with the amiable 

 people of Radack. These people, who met us with 

 friendly invitations, seeined for a time to fear us, in 

 the conviction of our superiority. The chiefs al- 

 ways showed the most courage and the greatest 

 confidence. Familiarity never made our friends 

 importunate or troublesome. The comparison 

 of our immense riches and their poverty, never de- 

 graded them to begging, seldom seduced them to 

 theft, and never made them violate trust when it 

 was reposed in them. We daily wandered through 

 their islands unarmed, slept with our treasures, 

 knives and iron, by our side, under their roofs, went 

 upon long excursions in their boats, and confided 



