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On the morning of the 24th of March, we broke up our tent on the Venus Point, left our dwelling-house, and shipped all our instruments and effects. The afternoon was appointed for our departure. The Tahaitians now boarded the ship, bringing as many provisions as they could carry.
His preparations were not yet complete, when we saw a long procession of Tahaitians approach, two and two, bearing on their shoulders various kinds of provisions fastened on bamboo poles. This set our caperer upon increased activity.
The little Pomareh, a pretty, lively boy, was dressed quite in the European fashion, in a jacket and trowsers of bombasin; he wore a round hat, but his feet, like those of all the other Tahaitians, were bare. They object that any kind of shoe hinders their walking.
Long inflamed by jealousy, at the decided preference shown by their females for the strangers, the passions of the Tahaitians were exasperated beyond endurance, by this act of retaliation; they made a sudden attack by night on the English, and murdered all, except one man named Adams, who, though severely wounded, contrived to escape into the forest, and elude the pursuit of the murderers.
Their only weapon was an old pistol fastened on a plank; this was frequently fired, probably to accustom the young King to the tumult of battle. The old King lies buried under a stone monument, in front of which three guns are kept; but, to prevent accidents, they are nailed up. We have already mentioned the trade in cocoa-oil carried on by the Tahaitians, and the ship possessed by the Queen.
The fidelity of a wife among the Tahaitians required that she should not favour any man without the knowledge and consent of her husband; and a beating was the punishment generally incurred by a violation of this duty. Among the failings of the Tahaitians, their love of the intoxicating liquor which they prepared from the much cultivated Ava root, must not be omitted.
The women rendered desperate by the massacre of their lovers, and eager for revenge, found means to obtain it the very next night. They overpowered the Tahaitians in their sleep, and murdered them to a man!
They had themselves never seen it, and considered it almost impossible for an European to reach it; even the boldest Tahaitians rarely visit it; and a saying is current in the island, that it is inhabited by an evil demon. Its depth they report to be unfathomable, and cannot conceive from what cause this huge body of water can be stationary at so great a height. Mr.
It is remarkable that the degenerate Tahaitians are no longer even in person such as they are described by the early travellers. Their religion appears to have had an effect inimical to their beauty. The large-grown Yeris, solely employed in praying, eating, and sleeping, are all, men and women, excessively fat even in early youth.
If a man, for some months before his death, had kept himself apart from women, he did not require this purification, but went direct to Heaven. The pride of the Yeris prompted them to believe in a Heaven peculiar to themselves, where they should associate only with their equals in birth. The Tahaitians of rank had each a Marai sacred to themselves, and which served for their religious assemblies.
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