THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 135 



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 compara- 

 tively 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 pre- 

 vented, 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 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 jus- 

 tice, a certain period was allowed for stock in hand to be 

 sold, before the law came into effect. But when it did, a 

 general search was made, in which even the houses of the 

 missionaries were not exempted, and all the ava (as the 

 natives call all ardent spirits) was poured on the ground. 

 When one reflects on the effect of intemperance on the 

 aborigines of the two Americas, I think it will be acknowl- 

 edged that every well-wisher of Tahiti owes no common debt 

 of gratitude to the missionaries. As long as the little island 

 of St. Helena remained under the government of the East 

 India Company, spirits, owing to the great injury they had 

 produced, were not allowed to be imported; but wine was 

 supplied from the Cape of Good Hope. It is rather a strik- 

 ing and not very gratifying fact, that in the same year 

 that spirits were allowed to be sold in Helena, their use was 

 banished from Tahiti by the free will of the people. 



After breakfast we proceeded on our journey. As my ob- 

 ject was merely to see a little of the interior scenery, we 

 returned by another track, which descended into the main 

 valley lower down. For some distance we wound, by a most 

 intricate path, along the side of the mountain which formed 



