43 § 
TAHITI 
CHAP. 
very heavily; but the good thatch of banana-leaves kept 
us dry. 
November igtk .—At daylight my friends, after their morn¬ 
ing prayer, prepared an excellent breakfast in the same manner 
as in the evening. They themselves certainly partook of it 
largely; indeed I never saw any men eat near so much. I 
suppose such enormously capacious stomachs must be the effect 
of a large part of their diet consisting of fruit and vegetables, 
which contain, in a given 
bulk, a comparatively 
small portion of nutri¬ 
ment. Unwittingly, I 
was the means of my 
companions breaking, as 
I afterwards learned, one 
of their own laws and 
resolutions : I took with 
me a flask of spirits, 
which they could not 
refuse to partake of; 
but as often as they 
drank a little, they put 
their fingers before their 
mouths, and uttered the 
word “Missionary.” 
About two years ago, 
although the use of the 
ava was prevented, 
drunkenness from the 
introduction of spirits 
became very prevalent. 
The missionaries pre¬ 
vailed on a few good men, who saw that their country was 
rapidly going to ruin, to join with them in a Temperance Society. 
From good sense or shame, all the chiefs and the queen were at 
last persuaded to join. Immediately a law was passed that no 
spirits should be allowed to be introduced into the island, and 
that he who sold and he who bought the forbidden article 
should be punished by a fine. With remarkable justice, a 
TAHITIAN. 
