POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 231 
wretchedness, and often practising the most ferocious 
barbarities. 
Travellers among the natives experienced greater 
inconvenience from these district stills than from any 
other cause, for when the people were either prepar¬ 
ing one, or engaged in drinking, it was impossible to 
obtain either their attention, or the common offices of 
hospitality. Under the unrestrained influence of their 
intoxicating draught, in their appearance and actions 
they resembled demons more than human beings. 
Sometimes, in a deserted still-house might be seen 
the fragments of the rude boiler, and the other ap¬ 
pendages of the still, scattered in confusion on the 
ground ; and among them the dead and mangled bodies 
of those who had been murdered with axes or billets 
of wood in the quarrels that had terminated their dis¬ 
sipation. 
It was not only among themselves that their unbridled 
passions led to such enormities. One or two European 
vessels were seized, and the crews inhumanly murdered. 
The first was the Queen Charlotte, of Port Jackson, the 
vessel by which we arrived in the islands. 
Towards the autumn of 1813, Mr. Shelly, formerly a 
Missionary in Tongatabu, and subsequently in Matavai, 
arrived as master of the Queen Charlotte, at Eimeo, on 
his way to the Paumotu, or Pearl Islands. These lie to 
the eastward of Tahiti, and form what is denominated 
the Dangerous Archipelago. The vessel was but imper¬ 
fectly manned, and a number of natives, of Raiatea and 
Tahiti, were taken on board, to dive among the lagoon 
islands for the pearl oyster. They proceeded to their 
destination, but had scarcely commenced their pearl¬ 
fishing, when the natives attacked the crew, barbarously 
