54 TAHITI AND EIMEO. 



This oil is often scented with aromatic herbs, to be employed by the 

 natives in anointing the hair and body ; it is also used for burning in 

 lamps, and is exported in considerable quantities. The lamps, which 

 are always kept burning in their houses at night, are made of the shell 

 of a cocoa-nut. The wick is formed of wild cotton, and is kept 

 upright in the centre of the bowl by two elastic strips of cocoa-nut 

 leaf crossing each other at right angles. 



Sugar is beginning to attract attention, and some attempts have also 

 been made in the culture and preparation of indigo. 



Making straw or chip hats is a favourite occupation among the 

 women, whose former employment of making tapa has, as was stated 

 in the preceding chapter, been much diminished by the introduction of 

 European fashions. 



I have also before referred to the abortive attempt of the mission- 

 aries to introduce machinery for the manufacture of cotton, which will 

 be again mentioned in speaking of the island of Eimeo, where the 

 experiment was made. 



Before closing my remarks on Tahiti, I consider it my duty to say 

 a few words in relation to the transgression of the local laws by many 

 of the vessels which visit it, and some of which, I regret to be com- 

 pelled to confess, bear the flag of the United States. I have particular 

 reference to the license always allowed to the crews, and in which the 

 masters and officers often themselves indulge, in making brothels of 

 their ships. They also do not scruple to retail ardent spirits to the 

 natives, although they well know that it is contrary to a law of the 

 island, most strictly enforced on shore. Such conduct not unfrequently 

 gives rise to difficulties very prejudicial to the interests of the owners ; 

 but it is still more disgraceful when considered in its destructive effect 

 upon the people whose hospitality they are enjoying, and as a practice 

 that they would not dare to indulge in, when in the ports of any 

 civilized nation. 



The influence of the example of these visiters upon the natives is 

 demoralizing in the extreme, is calculated to retard their advancement 

 in civilization, and throws countless difficulties and obstructions in the 

 way of the laudable exertions of the missionaries. 



Little idea can be formed by those who have not witnessed it, of. 

 the extent to which the practice of vending spirits is carried, not only 

 at Tahiti, but throughout the Polynesian islands. I am satisfied, that 

 if the owners of the vessels which indulge in it were aware of the 

 traffic, and had a just sense of their own interest, they would interdict the 

 sale of this pernicious article, and prohibit the carriage of it in their ships. 



