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Now Susannah was by far the youngest and most girlish among the Otaheitan women, and could not resist an appeal to her feelings even when uttered only by the eyes. Besides, little Toc was a great favourite with her. She therefore burst into a merry laugh, gently pulled Thursday's nose, and said, "Well, come along; but we'll git some o' the others for go too, an' have some fun.
This masterpiece of fine art had been nailed up on the walls of John Adams's hut, and had been fully expounded to each child in succession, as soon after its birth as was consistent with common-sense sometimes sooner. Suddenly Otaheitan Sally recovered herself. "Come, Matt, we must run home an' tell what we've seen." Away they went like two goats up the cliffs.
I believe the reason there are so few persons on the island, is accounted for by the dismal fate of the original settlers. The sailors had married Otaheitan women, whose brothers in one night murdered them, only one escaping, whose name was Adams.
"I's got to finish dis bit of cloth to-day, Toc," said Susannah, in broken English, for she knew that Master Thursday October preferred that tongue to Otaheitan, though he could speak both, "an' it's gettin' late." "Oh, what a pity!" said TOC, with a look of mild disappointment.
The manners too of these easy people multiplied embarrassments, of a particular kind, which it required no ordinary authority and self-denial to controul. In one instance, however, it is said, the presence of an Otaheitan Venus, in any thing else than a repulsive attitude, had the effect of expediting the necessary work.
The first thing they did after their arrival was to divide the land into nine equal parts, giving none to the Otaheitan men, who it is said had been carried off from their own island by force. At first they were kindly treated by the white men; but afterwards they made them their slaves.
In a short time after the event which we have just described, there came to Pitcairn a little sister to Charlie. She was named Mary, despite the earnest suggestion of Isaac Martin, that as she was "born of a Wednesday," she ought to be called by that name. Of course Otaheitan Sally at once devoted herself to the newcomer, but she did not on that account forsake her first love.
On the following night, the Otaheitan widows of the English inflicted dreadful vengeance, by murdering all their brothers who had committed the first frightful deed. Their children grew up under the fostering care of Adams, who officiated as a sort of patriarch. The present population comprises about eighty individuals, who form an interesting link between the European and Polynesian races."
What excellency there is in the scabbed skins of the Otaheitan lepers, to entitle them to the estimation of nobility, or what advantage they find in this to compensate the sufferings of so grievous a malady, is difficult indeed to divine; but it may be very safely affirmed of those among us, who have prospered so well as to obtain the gout for a possession, that they really require all the comforts of riches, though tenfold more than imagined, to render the residue of life any way tolerable.
We shall accordingly pass it over, specifying only a few particulars respecting one of its natives Aotourou, who, at his own desire, accompanied Bougainville to Europe, and whose history has attracted a little notice. This young man was the son of an Otaheitan chief, and a captive woman of the neighbouring isle of Oopoa, with the natives of which the Otaheitans often carried on war.
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