1835] TEMPERANCE OF THE NATIVES 299 



stream, besides its cool water, produced ells and cray-fish. I did indeed 

 admire this scene, when I compared it with an uncultivated one in the 

 temperate zones. I felt the force of the remark, that man, at least 

 savage man, with his reasoning powers only partly developed, is the 

 child of the tropics. 



As the evening drew to a close, I strolled beneath the gloomy shade 

 of the bananas up the course of the stream. My walk was soon 

 brought to a close, by coming to a waterfall between two and three 

 hundred feet high ; and again above this there was another. I mention 

 all these waterfalls in this one brook, to give a general idea of the 

 inclination of the land. In the little recess where the water fell, it did 

 not appear that a breath of wind had ever blown. The thin edges of 

 the great leaves of the banana, damp with spray, were unbroken, instead 

 of being, as is so generally the case, split into a thousand shreds. From 

 our position, almost suspended on the mountain-side, there were 

 glimpses into the depths of the neighbouring valleys ; and the lofty 

 points of the central, mountains, towering up within sixty degrees of the 

 zenith, hid half the evening sky. Thus seated, it was a sublime spectacle 

 to watch the shades of night gradually obscuring the last and highest 

 pinnacles. 



Before we laid ourselves down to sleep, the elder Tahitian fell on his 

 knees, and with closed eyes repeated a long prayer in his native tongue. 

 He prayed as a Christian should do, with fitting reverence, and without 

 the fear of ridicule or any ostentation of piety. At our meals neither of 

 the men would taste food, without saying beforehand a short grace. 

 Those travellers who think that a Tahitian prays only when the eyes of 

 the missionary are fixed on him, should have slept with us that night on 

 the mountain-side. Before morning it rained very heavily ; but the good 

 thatch of banana-leaves kept us dry. 



November igth. At daylight my friends, after their morning prayer, 

 prepared an excellent breakfast in the same manner as in the evening. 

 They themselves certainly partook of it largely ; indeed I never saw 

 any men eat near so much. I suppose such enormously capacious 

 stomachs must be the effect of a large part of their diet consisting of 

 fruit and vegetables, which contain, in a given bulk, a comparatively 

 small portion of nutriment. Unwittingly, I was the means of my com- 

 panions breaking, as I afterwards learned, one of their own laws and 

 resolutions ; I took with me a flask of spirits, which they could not 

 refuse to partake of; but as often as they drank a little, they put their 

 fingers before their mouths, and uttered the word " Missionary." About 

 two years ago, although the use of the ava was prevented, drunkenness 

 trom the introduction of spirits became very prevalent. The mission- 

 aries prevailed on a few good men, who saw that their country was 

 rapidly going to ruin, to join with them in a Temperance Society. From 

 good sense or shame, all the chiefs and the queen were at last per- 

 suaded to join. Immediately a law was passed, that no spirits should 

 be allowed to be introduced into the island, and that he who sold and 

 he who bought the forbidden article should be punished by a fine. 

 With remarkable justice, a certain period was allowed for stock in hand 



