ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, ETC. 283 



copper-colored native, not omitting the intermediate grade of half- 

 castes. Men, women, and children, of various families, are all 

 huddled together in a mass, lolling about, talking and smoking 

 during the day, and sleeping and grunting like swine at night. 

 The effluvia arising from the mass of native bodies, during a 

 still, warm evening, is not comparable to otto of roses, and I have 

 often been compelled to forego the pleasure of a nocturnal lounge 

 on deck, and dive to the cabin for purer air. This effluvia is 

 owing to a common habit among these people, and particularly 

 of the women, of anointing the hair and body with cocoanut oil. 

 The oil, in a recent state, possesses an aromatic, and rather 

 agreeable odor, but when allowed to become rancid, it is most 

 insufferably rank and disgusting. When in this rancid state, its 

 cosmetic properties are supposed to be improved, and it is then 

 applied in large quantities to the whole person. Were it not for 

 this disagreeable and unsavory practice, the women here would 

 be well calculated to please the taste of a stranger, as many of 

 them are truly handsome, and remarkably graceful in their 

 deportment. I believe that most of those who are married to the 

 foreigners have given up this disgusting practice. 



. On the 27th we anchored in the harbor of Oahu, and from 

 this time, until the 16th of March, I was busily engaged in pack- 

 ing my multifarious collections, making calls upon my friends, 

 &c., preparatory to embarking for Valparaiso, via Tahiti, in 

 the ship Europa, Captain Shaw, of this port. 



I have now been here nearly three months ; much longer than 

 I expected to have been detained. My time has been employed 

 chiefly in pursuing my scientific avocations, collecting specimens, 

 &c., in which I have been as successful as I anticipated. In 

 this pursuit I have received much and very steady assistance 

 from many of the resident foreigners, and, as a parting word, I 

 wish them to accept my most unfeigned thanks, both for this and for 

 the uniform hospitality and kindness with which they have treated 



