Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 10, 2025
To return from this digression to the history of the colonization of Pitcairn Island. The mutineers of the Bounty, after the success of their plot, unanimously elected Christian for their Captain, and sailed for Tahaiti. On their way thither, they passed the small hilly, well peopled island of Tabuai, seen in 1777 by Cook, and formed the resolution of settling there.
I received another visit from the Royal Family, accompanied this time by many of the Vice-Kings then in Tahaiti, with their consorts. Among them was the grandfather of the little monarch Pomareh the Second. After some preliminaries, my illustrious guests unanimously preferred a request in the most modest, yet pressing manner. They wished me to get a pair of boots made for the little King.
As they know nothing of our fashions, they pay no sort of attention to the cut, and even age and wear do not much diminish their estimation of their attire; a ripped-out seam, or a hole, is no drawback in the elegance of the article. These clothes, which are brought to Tahaiti by merchant-ships, are purchased at a rag-market, and sold here at an enormous profit.
This, on arriving at O Tahaiti, was found six minutes fifty seconds wrong; and the longitudes here given have been rectified accordingly. The following is from our observations the situation of the Palliser Islands: South point of the first group. Lat. 15° 34' 25" Long. 146° 6' 49" The two small islands to the West of the first group Lat. 15° 30' 15" Long. 146° 20' 50"
I did not myself touch on this island, but I met in Chili an American Captain just returned from it, and in Tahaiti one of the earliest mothers of its population, who spoke English well enough to carry on a conversation.
We soon saw a European boat steering towards us; it brought us a pilot, who, to our great surprise, addressed us in the Russian language, having recognized our flag as belonging to that nation: he was an Englishman of the name of Williams, who had first been a sailor on board a merchant ship, afterwards entered the service of the Russian American Company on the north-west coast of America, and was at length settled for life in Tahaiti.
Their hair was cut quite close to the roots, according to a fashion introduced by the Missionaries, and their heads covered by little European chip hats of a most tasteless form, and decorated with ribbons and flowers, made in Tahaiti. But the most valuable article of dress was a coloured gown, an indubitable sign of the possessor's opulence, and the object of her unbounded vanity.
Even the people who had drawn us did not enter the church; from which I infer, that the influence of the missionaries is by no means so considerable as at O Tahaiti; and certainly the converts are not yet driven with a stick into the house of prayer: nor would it be easy to fasten on the minds of the people the fetters so patiently endured on the Society Islands, where the labours of the missionaries are seldom interrupted by the intervention of strangers.
My children are not yet so firmly established, but that they are liable to fall into error. They require the guidance of an intelligent virtuous man from some civilized nation." At Tahaiti, as already stated, I met with one of Adams's wives, who had arrived there a short time before in an European ship, and from her I learnt many of the particulars here related.
Several lizards have also been found in these islands, such as the striped Ablepharus of O Tahaiti, and a small Gecko; a large coal-black lizard was several times seen, but always escaped among the dry pandanus leaves.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking