132 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
the people in general. In this employment they 
were sometimes engaged for several days together, 
drinking the spirit as it issued from the still, sink¬ 
ing into a state of indescribable 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 
preparing one, or engaged in drinking, it was 
impossible to obtain either their attention, or the 
common offices of hospitality. Under the unre¬ 
strained influence of their intoxicating draught, in 
their appearance and actions they resembled de¬ 
mons more than human beings. 
Sometimes, in a deserted still-house might be 
seen the fragments of the rude boiler, and the 
other appendages 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 debauch. 
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, for¬ 
merly a Missionary in Tongatabu, and subsequently 
in Matavai, arrived as master of the Queen Char¬ 
lotte, 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 Ar¬ 
chipelago. The vessel was but imperfectly manned, 
and a number of natives, of Raiatea and Tahiti, 
were taken on board, to dive among the lagoon 
