OTAHEITE. 
arrived before the next Alsou 3 at “ Atahourou,”’ the refi- 
dence of their fri ane ‘ Too e they were well 
leagues. On 
Indian guides, fet ne to trace he river up Ge wiley from 
which it iffues. For about fix miles they met with houfes, 
not far from one another, on each fide of the river, and 
the valley was every where about 400 yards wide. Havin 
been refrefhed at the laft houfe they met with, and havi 
with great violence, a a pool fo age that the Indians 
faid they could not pa The ftones, which Mr. Banks 
examined, exhibited, like thofe of Madeira, manifeft tokens 
part of the globe 
which were left behind when the re 
a fubterraneous fire, fo as to givea ale 
or were torn from rocks, which, from he. creation of the 
world, had been the bed of the fea, and thrown up in heaps, 
en the firft minifter . 
e n the height of her power ; he w 
alfo i chief & Takowa” or prieft of the ifland, and pee’ 
oe , well acquainted with the religion of the country, 
both as to its ceremonies and its principles. He had alfo 
great ee erlence aad knowledge in navigation, a and was par- 
ticularly acquainted with the number and firuation of the 
ds. = was — an inftructive and 
; and expreffed a 
navigators, with which ee Sheerfally complied. 
articles for traffic in this ifland were axes, hatchets, aad 
large nails, looking glafles, knives, and beads, for fom 
which every thing which the natives poffefs may be oar 
They are indeed fond of fine linen cloth, both white and 
prined : but an ax worth half a crown will fetch more than 
a piece of cloth worth 20s. 
Otaheite is furrounded by a reef of coral rocks, which 
forms feveral excellent bays and harbours, where there is 
room and de oth of water for wee number of the largett 
beft anchoring is on the E, fide of the bay, with 16 and 
14 fathom upon an oozy bottom, The fhore of the bay is 
a fine fandy beach, behind which runs a river of frefh water, 
fo that any number of fhips may be fupplied without incom- 
moding each other 
The face of the country, except that part of it which 
t of thefe ridges and the fea is a 
border of low land, cou ike the whole ifland, except in 
a few places where the ridges rife direétly from the fea: the 
border of low land is in different ee oF different breadths, 
but no where more than a mile anda The foil, except 
on the very tops of the is Seay rich and fertile, 
watered by a great umber of rivulets of excelient water, an 
covered with truit-trees of various kinds. The low land that 
lies between the foot of the ridges and the fea, and fome of 
the vallies, are the only parts of the ifland that are inhabited, 
and here it is populous: the houfes do not form villages or 
towns, but are ranged along the whole border, at the diftance 
of about fifty yards from each other, with little plantations 
of plantains, the tree which furnifhes them with cloth. The 
whole ifland, according to the beft information, could furnifh 
6780 fighting men, from which the sumber of inhabitants 
be computed. The produce of this ifland is 
called ethee, of which the root only is eaten; a frmt that 
grows in a pod, like that of a large kidney bean, which, 
Eaft Indies pandares, which produces fruit fomething like 
the pine a ; a fhrub called nono; the morinda, which 
alfo produces fruit ; a fpecies of fern, of which the root is 
the fern, and the theve, are eaten only by the age people, 
and in times of fcarcity. All thefe, hich ferve the inha- 
bitants for food, the earth produces (pontenedul or with 
ai culture. They h 
soult ry; neither is 
plies them 
which is their chief luxury, and to catch it their principal 
labour. As to the people, they are of the largett fize of 
Europeans. The men are tall, {trong, well-limbed, and 
finely fhaped. ‘The women of the fuperior rank are alfo, in 
general, above our middle ftature, but thofe of the inferior 
clafs are rather below it, and fome of them are very f{mall. 
This defeét in fize probably proceeds from their early 
commerce with men, the only thing in which they differ 
from their fuperiors, that could poffibly affeé& their growth. 
Their natural complexion is that kind of clear olive or 
brunette, which many people in Europe prefer to the fineft 
white and red. ‘The fkin is delicately {mooth and foft 5 
have no tint in their cheeks, whic 
name of colour. 
women, are full of ¢ 
without exception, moft  pesutifalle even and white, and 
univerfally black, and rather coarfe. 
which they wear in many fafhtons, always, however, plucking 
out great part of them, and keeping the reft perfectly clean 
and neat. Intheir motions there is at once vigour and eafe ; 
their walk is graceful, their deportment liberal, and their 
behaviour to Roca Si and to each other a able and cour- 
teous. In the elr dif{pofitions, alfo, they feemed to be brave, 
without 
leves ; and 
when that is allowed, ey faa not much fear a competition 
with the people of any other nation upon earth. The women 
2 always 
