POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 173 
tree; with extensive and verdant groves of which they 
are adorned. They seem^j at a distance^ as if they were 
growing on the surface of the water^ and the roots and 
stems of many are washed hy the spray^ or by the tide^ 
when it rises a few inches higher than usual. Upon the 
kernel of the cocoa-nut^ and the fish taken among the 
reefs^ the inhabitants principally subsist. 
Tetuaroa^ the long^ or distant^ sea^ is part of the here¬ 
ditary possessions of the reigning family^ and is attached 
to the district of Pare. Most of the inhabitants of these 
little islets occupy^ under the king^ a part of his own 
land^ from which they are supplied with bread-fruit and 
taro. They are much employed in fishing, and formerly 
brought over large quantities of fish, carrying to the islands 
in return bread-fruit, and other edible productions of 
Tahiti. In the wars which disturbed the conclusion of 
the reign of Pomare the First, and the commencement of 
that of his successor, many of the inhabitants were cut off; 
and the decrease of population, thus occasioned, has dimi¬ 
nished the intercourse between these islands and Tahiti. 
In addition to the fishery carried on here, Tetuaroa has 
long been a kind of watering-place for the royal family, 
and a frequent xesort for what might be called the 
fashionable and gay of Tahiti.*—Hither the areois, dan¬ 
cers, and singers, were accustomed to repair, together 
with those whose lives were professedly devoted to indo¬ 
lent pleasures. It was also frequented by the females of 
the higher class, for the purppses of haapori^ increas¬ 
ing the corpulency of their persons, and removing, by 
luxurious ease under the embowering shade of the 
cocoa-nut groves, the dark tinge which the vertical sun 
of Tahiti might have burnt upon the complexions. So 
great was the intercourse formerly, that a hundred of 
