200 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP. 
IX. 
Marcli, 
182 fi, 
Otalieitan market as they would have been in New Zealand. No 
dollars bear their full value here, unless the pillars on the reverse are 
clearly distinguishable, and a greater degree of value is attached to 
such as are bright than to others. So ignorant, indeed, were these 
simple people of the real worth of the coin, that it was not unusual for 
them to offer two that were blemished, in exchange for one that was new, 
and in the market a yard of printed calico, a white shirt, new or old, pro- 
vided it had not a hole in it (even a threadbare shirt that is whole being 
whimsically preferred to one which might have been eaten through 
by a mouse), or a Spanish dollar that had two pillars upon it, were in 
the ordinary way equivalent to a club, a spear, a conch shell, a paddle, 
or a pig. Deviations, of course, occurred from this scale, founded on 
the superior quality or size of the article, and occasionally on the cir- 
cumstances of the vendor, who, when he anticipated a better bargain, 
would accommodate his price to his preconceived opinion of the dis- 
position of the purchaser. We were not more conveniently circum- 
stanced in regard to the clothing which we could offer in exchange, as 
we had a long voyage before us, and little to spare without subjecting 
ourselves to future inconvenience. We, consequently, found ourselves 
at first surrounded with plenty, without the means of purchase, or 
obliged to part in payment with what we could very ill spare : and we 
incurred the additional risk of being charged with parsimony, which 
the good people of Otaheite are very apt to attach to those who may 
not meet their ideas of generosity. “ Taata paree,” or stingy peoplcj 
is an epithet which they always affix to such persons, with a feeling of 
contempt, although they are themselves equally open to the chargOj 
never offering a present without expecting a much larger one in retui'n- 
It is very desirable to secure a favourable impression by liberality on 
your first arrival at this island ; it being a constant custom with the 
natives to mark those who have any peculiarity of person or manner 
by a nickname, by which alone the person will be known as long ns 
any recollection of his visit may remain. Among the many instances 
which occurred of this, was one of a brother officer, who, when we 
quitted England, begged to be remembered to his old acquaintances 
in Otaheite ; but we found they had lost all memory of his name, and we 
