20 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
obliged the Missionaries to remove from the island, and 
suspend their endeavours for the instruction of the na¬ 
tives. Since the restoration of peace, however, their 
labours have been resumed with more extensive and 
encouraging prospects of success than had been pre¬ 
viously enjoyed. The inhabitants are in general a hardy 
and industrious race ; but it is remarkable that in their 
language they employ the t in all those words in which 
the Jc would be used by the natives of the other islands. 
ISTihau, a small island, twenty miles in length, and 
seven miles widfe, politically connected with Tauai, 
lies in a westerly direction, about fifteen miles distant. 
The inhabitants are not numerous, and, in the general 
features of their character, resemble the people of 
Tauai. These islands are celebrated throughout the 
whole group for the manufacture of the fine painted or 
variegated mats, so much admired by foreigners, and 
, which, for the purpose of sleeping on, the chiefs in all 
the islands prefer to any others. These mats are some¬ 
times very large, measuring eighteen or twenty yards in 
length, and three or four yards in breadth, yet they are 
woven by the hand, without any loom or frame, with 
surprising regularity and exactness ; they are made 
with a fine kind of rush, part of which they stain of a 
red colour with vegetable dyes, and form their beauti¬ 
ful patterns by weaving them into the mat at its first 
fabrication, or working them in after it is finished. 
The natives of these islands are also distinguished 
for the cultivation of the yam, which grows very large, 
both at Tauai and Mhau, and contributes essentially to 
the support of the inhabitants. As they are not culti¬ 
vated to any extent in the other islands, many ships are 
induced to visit these, principally for the purpose of 
