20 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
opening on the north-west, but only such as to 
admit with difficulty the narrow canoes of the 
natives. They are all low islands, the highest parts 
being seldom three or four feet above the water ; 
the only soil they contain is composed of sand and 
fragments of coral, with which is mingled vegetable 
mould, produced on the spot, or carried from 
Tahiti. The chief article of food produced in 
these islands is the fruit of the cocoa-nut tree; 
with extensive and verdant groves of which they 
are adorned. They seem, at a distance, as if they 
were growing on the surface of the water, and the 
roots and stems of many are washed by 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. 
Te-tua-roa, (the long, or distant, sea,) is part of 
the hereditary possessions of the reigning family 
of Tahiti; it is attached to the district of Pare, 
and is said formerly to have been the depo¬ 
sitory of the monarch’s treasures. 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, conveying in return 
bread-fruit, and other edible productions, from 
Tahiti. In the wars which disturbed the conclu¬ 
sion 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 diminished the 
intercourse between these islands and Tahiti. 
In addition to the fishery carried on here, 
Tetuaroa has long been a kind of watering-place 
