252 REMARKS AND OPINIONS. 



with the utmost neatness, in fine Enghsh clothes, 

 and imitated our manners with much propriety. 

 They are at other times always dressed in their 

 native costume, and only their foreign guests are 

 served in porcelain and silver. Fashion reigns 

 even at Owhyee, with varying caprice, particu- 

 larly over the women. The ornaments which the 

 queens and great people wear, immediately increase 

 extremely in value. Every body has now a look- 

 ing-glass, and a pipe-head tied round the neck in 

 an European handkerchief. The Europeans are 

 dressed in the European fashion, and do not un- 

 cover before those whose rank otherwise requires 

 this mark of respect. 



Many Owhyeeans understand a little English, 

 but none are proficients in it, not even those who 

 have made voyages on board American ships, 

 which a great many have done. None of them 

 have probably learnt the letters.* It is only our 

 ships which attract their whole attention. We were 

 very much surprised to see, at Titatua, some chil- 

 dren drawing ships with a switch in the sand on 

 the beach. Two and three masted vessels were drawn 

 with the greatest accuracy, and provided with the 



* Tamaamaah understands English without speaking it. Lio- 

 Lio learned to write two lines in English, in which he begged 

 the captain of a ship to send him a bottle of rum. Louis XIV. 

 when a child, learned to write : " L'homage est du aux Rois, 

 ils font ce qu'il leur plait."— (MS. of Dubrowski, collection in 

 the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg.) 



