132 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
Raiatea^ with whom many valuable improvements have 
originated; and the first hats and bonnets ever made 
in the islands, and worn by the natives, were made by 
Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Threlkeld in the spring of 1820. 
Their appearance on the heads of the natives of Raiatea 
produced no slight sensation there; and the report of 
their use, as it spread through the islands, occasioned a 
considerable stir. 
Highly approving of whatever had a tendency to civi¬ 
lize the natives, or to furnish them with innocent and 
useful employment, we rejoiced at their introduction, 
and endeavoured to persuade the natives of Huahine to 
follow the example of their Raiatean neighbours 5 but 
whether they were influenced by a feeling of pride which 
made them averse to imitate the Raiateans, or an unwill¬ 
ingness to increase their domestic employments, we do 
not know ; but the females in general, the queen and chief 
women in particular, seemed at first determined to resist 
the innovation. The men rejoiced at the idea of making 
hats; and yet, notwithstanding this, and the repeated 
offers of Mrs. Barff and Mrs. Ellis to teach the females 
to plat the leaves of the mau, and to make the plat into 
bonnets and hats, they were exceedingly averse to learn. 
Following the example of those in Raiatea, their teachers 
made bonnets for themselves with the bark of the purau; 
and though the chief women acknowledged that they 
looked very well on them, they said they had not yet 
procured the articles necessary to form a complete Euro¬ 
pean dress—that many were still without shoes and 
stockings—and that it would be quite ridiculous for the 
head to be covered with a bonnet after the fashion of the 
foreigners, while the feet, like those of the islanders in 
general, were without shoes. A short time afterwards. 
