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Updated: July 26, 2025
From Mr. Anderson's account of the Otaheitans, it appears, that their religious system is extensive, and, in various instances, singular. They do not seem to pay respect to one God as possessing pre-eminence, but believe in a plurality of divinities, all of whom are supposed to be very powerful.
While she was speaking, the four Otaheitans, having apparently come to an agreement as to their future proceedings, loaded their muskets hastily, and rushing from the house soon disappeared in the woods. We shall not harrow the reader's feelings by following farther the bloody details of this massacre.
A few trees of the paper-mulberry were seen, from which the natives made a cloth in a similar manner to the Otaheitans, but the quantity was so small that it was only used for ornament.
At the second one seen, called Atoui by the natives, they were quickly surrounded by canoes; the occupants, very like the Otaheitans in appearance and language, were armed with stones, which they threw overboard as soon as they found they were not likely to be wanted, and though none could be persuaded to come on board the ships, they freely parted with fish for anything they could get in exchange.
It may likewise be observed, that although the Otaheitans possess the shrub which produces cotton, they neither improve it by culture, nor have the knowledge of converting its wool into cloth, but content themselves with a far meaner production as a substitute.
It explains the fact that in the old creeds, as in the still extant creed of the Otaheitans, every family has its guardian spirit, who is supposed to be one of their departed relatives; and that they sacrifice to these as minor gods a practice still pursued by the Chinese and even by the Russians.
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.
"Hallo! here's a circumstance," exclaimed Martin, stopping in front of an object which lay on the ground. On closer examination the "circumstance" turned out to be an image made of a hard and coarse red stone. "It is evidently an idol," said Christian; "and here are some smooth round stones, resembling those used by the Otaheitans in war."
But of such a conspiracy and assault against the best hopes of man, these Otaheitans, we see, are by no means guilty. They look for another existence after that one is finished, in which the body held an inseparable companionship.
Possessing herself of the weapon, she went straight to the widow of Fletcher Christian, and wakened her. She rose, somewhat reluctantly, and followed the woman, whose face was concealed in a kerchief of native cloth. The two then went cautiously to another hat, where two of the wives of the murdered Otaheitans awaited them, the one with a long knife, the other with an axe in her hand.
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