PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
213 
March, 
1 82 C. 
Was first discovered. The floor is always strewed with grass, which CHAP, 
they are not at all careful to preserve clean or dry, and it conse- 
quently becomes extremely filthy and disagreeable ; and when it can 
be no longer endured, it is replaced by fresh materials. 'I'lieir house- 
hold furniture has been increased by the introduction of various 
European articles ; and a chest, or occasionally a bedstead, may be 
seen occupying the corner of an apartment ; but these are not yet in 
great demand, the natives having little to put into the former, and 
esteeming such of the latter as have found their way to Otaheite 
scarcely more desirable places of repose than their mats spread upon 
straw. The extreme mildness of the climate, however, sufficiently 
accounts for the contented state of the population in this respect. 
Their occupations are few, and in general only such as are neces- 
sary to existence or to the gratification of vanity. In our repeated 
visits to their huts we found them engaged either in preparing their 
meals, platting straw-bonnets, stringing the smallest kinds of beads to 
make rings for the fingers or the ears, playing the Jew’s harp, or 
lolling about upon their mats ; the princess excepted, whose greatest 
amusement consisted in turning a hand-organ. The indolence of these 
people has ever been notorious, and has been a greater bar to the suc- 
cess of the missionaries than their previous faith. The fate of the 
experiment on the cotton in Eimeo is an exemplification of this. It is 
Well known that the land was cleared, and the cotton planted and 
grown, but the perseverance to clean the crop, to make it marketable. 
Was wanting ; and finding no sale for the article in its rude state, they 
forbore to cultivate it the next year. A small portion, however, was 
picked by way of experiment : the missionaries taught the girls to spin, 
and even furnished them with a loom, and instructed them in the use of 
it, upon condition that they should weave fifty yards of cloth for the 
king, and fifty for themselves. The novelty of the employment at first 
brought many pupils, but they would not persevere, and not one was 
found who fulfilled the engagement. The proportion due to the king 
Was wove, but not as much more as would make a single gown, and the 
pupils, after a dispute regarding their wages, abandoned the employ- 
ment about the period of our arrival. “ Why should we work?” they 
