1835.] GOOD SENSE OF THE TAHITIANS. 405 



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 i^th. — 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 eflfect 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 companions 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 from the introduction of spirits 

 became very prevalent. The missionaries 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 persuaded 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 to be sold, before the law came into efTect. Bui 

 when it did, a general search was made, in which even lh( 

 houses of the missionaries were not exempted, and all the 

 ava (as the natives call all ardent spirits) was poured on 



