death. In the performance of all ceremonies, they exemplify the greatest devotion, nor do they at any time approach a place sacred to the Eatooa, without the most marked respect,—the women uncovering their bosoms and the men their heads. Of the evil demon, or Veheeneihee, they have but little dread, being firmly persuaded that after the soul has taken its departure from the body, it will enjoy a rank among their Eatooas, in another world, according as its life has been good or bad in this. Nothing can exceed their superstition; they are continually seeing atoowas, or ghosts, and, in their sleep, they fancy the soul leaves the body to repose among the spirits. Their burial places, or morais, consist of a large heap of stones, very irregularly piled, having on the top a small house for the purpose of receiving the remains of the king and his family, or those of the principal chiefs. The sacrifices are made here, and the place being tabooed, or rendered sacred, the women, who labour under great restriction, are precluded from touching, or even going to it, under the penalty of death." A prevalent custom, and one that is of great importance to strangers, is that of exchanging names. When an

exchange of this kind takes place, between a chief and a stranger, the adopted brother, or tayo, is considered equally entitled with himself to whatever his house or district affords, and he receives the same respect from the people.

"The clothing, or dress of these people is very simple, the men having nothing but the ame or girdle of cloth round their waist, which is passed between their legs and neatly secured in front. They have also a hat made from the palm tree, the simplicity of which gives an interesting finish to their manly statures. They are excessively fond of ear ornaments, the men making theirs from seashells, or light wood, which, by the application of an earth, becomes beautifully white. The women prefer flowers, which at all seasons are to be found. Whales' teeth are held in such estimation, that a good one is considered equal to the greatest property; they are generally in the possession of the chiefs, who wear them suspended round their neck. Their other species of dress consists of a kind of coronet, ingeniously made from a light wood, on which is fastened, by means of the rosin from the bread-fruit tree, small red berries; a great quantity of feathers gives the finish. The ruff worn round the neck, is made of the same materials. Added to these are large bunches

of human hair, tied round the ankles, wrist or neck, and always worn in battle, though seldom otherwise. Tattooing is evidently considered among them a species of dress, a man without it being held in the greatest contempt. The women are not exposed as much as the men, and their tattooing is very inconsiderable. Their dress consists of a piece of cloth round their waists, answering to a short petticoat, and a mantle, which being tied on the left shoulder, and crossing the bosom, rests on the right hip, and hangs negligently as low as the knee, or call of the leg, as it may accord with the taste of the lady. Their hair is generally black, but worn in different ways, some long, and turned up-others short. They are all fond of adorning their persons with flowers, and many of the wreaths are formed with such elegant simplicity, as to contribute not a little to their personal appearance, which is at all times particularly interesting; the beauty of their features being only equalled by the symmetry of their figures. They are of a bright copper colour, and in the cheeks of those who were requested to refrain from anointing themselves with oil, and the roots of trees, the crimson die was very conspicuous."

The following account of their domestic economy, their food, manners and mode of living, is abridged chiefly from the Journal of Commodore Porter.

The houses of these islanders are built in the following manner: Four upright posts, of the bread tree, with the upper end forked, and about twenty feet long, are driven into the ground, and across the tops of these is laid a ridge-pole made of the cocoa-nut tree; at a convenient distance from these centre posts, on each side are driven other posts, eight or ten feet long, surmounted in like manner with a ridgepole. The roof and sides are formed of bamboo wicker-work, overlaid with the large leaves of the palm and bread-tree, and these are secured, as they are interwoven, with threads, or strings, twisted from the fibres of the inside of the shell of a cocoa-nut. These houses are variously ornamented,-sometimes the columns are carved in the form of their gods, but more commonly they are covered with their fine white cloth, which is made of bark, bound on with different coloured cord, made also of bark or of the inside of the cocoa-nut. The inte rior of the building is divided lengthwise, into two equal parts, by placing along from one end to the other, the trunk of the cocoa-nut tree; the part toward the

front is paved with smooth stones; the back part is covered with mats, and is occupied as a sleeping place for the whole family-the trunk of the tree that forms the division serving as a foot-board, and a similar one, at the back wall, constituting a pillow. "Their houses of feasting," says Commodore Porter, "are raised, to the height of six or eight feet, on a platform of large stones, neatly hewn and fitted together, and some of them are one hundred yards in length, and forty in breadth, surrounded by a square of buildings executed in a style of elegance which is calculated to inspire one with an exalted opinion of the ingenuity, taste, and perseverance of the people." These places, the women are, on no occasion, allowed to enter. Their only agricultural implements are sharpened stakes, with which they loosen the earth; and their fishing apparatus consists of nets, harpoons made of bone and wood, rods and lines with fish-hooks ingeniously constructed of the mother-of-pearl. In their manufacture of cloth, which is performed by the women, they use only a beater and smooth log; "the beater is about eighteen inches long, one end is rounded for a handle, the rest is squared, and slightly grooved. The whole operation of making cloth consists in beating the bark out, on the log, to the size required, keeping it wet and gently stretched with one hand, while the other is employed with the beater." This operation resembles the laying of wool or fur, in the manufacture of hats. The cloth is very neat and even, and nearly as strong as fine cotton; and it is mended, when torn, by wetting the edges and gently beating the parts together. "It has been represented," says the Cominodore, "that the women of this great nation disseminated among the South-Sea Islands, are not permitted to eat with the men, and that they are not allowed to eat pork on any occasion; but these people are an exception: men, women and children eat together, although they have their messes in separate dishes, and the women are not prohibited from eating pork, except only during the existence of taboos; but even then they will eat it, if the men are not present, or if they will have the complaisance to turn away their faces and not seem to notice them, which they generally do. When a marriage takes place they have a feast, and this constitutes the whole ceremony; the union is not binding, and the parties are at liberty to separate when they no longer like each other, provided they have no children.

The girls are seldom married before they are eighteen or twenty years old, and they preserve their beauty to an advanced age." Notwithstanding their loose notions on the subject of marriage, they are represented by both our travellers, as being fond of their children, and manifesting no inconsiderable degree of conjugal affection. Unlike those of most savage races, the women here are not subjected to hard labour; their occupations are wholly domestic, while the men cultivate the ground, catch fish, build canoes and houses, and protect their families; they are all their own artificers, and their knowledge is sufficient to supply their own wants. "Their furniture, (household,) consists of mats of a supcrior workmanship, callabashes, baskets, kava-cups, formed of the cocoa-nut, cradles for their children, hollowed out of logs with great neatness, small chests with covers, wooden bowls, and stands to hang different things upon, so contrived that the rats cannot mount them." Of quadrupeds, there are in Nooaheevah hogs, dogs, cats and rats. Commodore Porter saw no cats, but was told they run wild in the woods; of dogs he saw only two, and they had been recently brought there; rats are numerous, and hogs very abundant, constituting a principal article of food. "Of birds," says the Commodore, "the island affords a variety, four only of which I had an opportunity of examining. A dove, which is very abundant, with a beautiful green plumage; a blue kind of paroquet; a bird resembling a lark, and a beautiful white bird, with black legs and bill, and web-footed: its body is not larger than that of a snipe; its wings are long; its head is large; its eyes prominent and black, and nothing can exceed the whiteness and delicacy of its feathers." There is also the common dunghill fowl. Of fish there is not a great variety, nor are they caught in much abundance. Among them, however, is one resembling a perch, and a small red fish, rather longer and| thicker than the finger, remarkable for its delicacy. The vegetable productions of this island are various. The cocoa grows in the valleys in great abundance, and. serves a variety of purposes, besides that of food. There are, also, as many as twenty kinds of banana; the tarra, a root resembling a yam, of a pungent taste, and excellent when boiled or roasted, and the sugar cane, which grows here to an uncommon size, it being no unusual thing to see the stalks fourteen feet long and ten or twelve inches in circumference;

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this they chew and swallow the juice. There are, besides, the kava, a root which possesses an intoxicating quality, and of t which the natives are very fond; a fruit resembling a large bean, which has the taste of a chestnut, both in the pod and when roasted, and which grows on trees of a moderate height, but is not abundant; an apple, in appearance like the red pepper, juicy and cooling, but rather insipid; a fruit, not unlike the walnut, which contains a great quantity of oil, and is used instead of candles; pine-apples, of an inferior quality for want of cultivation, and the castor-oil bean, which grows in great abundance. But the vegetable most important to the natives, and which they cultivate with most care, is the breadtree. Of this tree it is stated in the Journal, that it grows with great luxuriance, in extensive groves, scattered through every valley. It is of the height of fifty or sixty feet, branching out in a large and spreading top, beautiful in appearance, and affording a fine shade; the trunk is about six feet in circumference; the lower branches are usually about twelve feet from the ground; the bark is soft, and on being wounded exudes a milky juice, not unpleasant to the taste, which exposed to the sun, forms an excellent bird-lime, and is used for catching both birds and rats. The leaves are about sixteen inches wide, with deep clefts like the fig leaf. The fruit, when ripe, is about the size of a child's head, green, and the surface divided by slight traces into innumerable six-sided figures: it has a thin, delicate skin; a large and tough core, with remarkably small seeds situated in a spongy substance between the core and the eatable part, which is next the rind. It is eaten baked, boiled or roasted; whole, quartered, or cut into slices; it resembles our soft bread in taste, but is sweeter, and is particularly palatable when sliced and fried in butter or lard. It keeps only three or four days, when gathered and hung up; but the natives have a method of preserving it for several years, by baking it, wrapping it in leaves and burying it in the earth: in this state it becomes very sour, and is more highly esteemed by them than any other food. This tree is every thing to the natives: it supplies food for them and their hogs; with the leaves they cover their houses; of the inner bark of the small branches they make cloth; of the juice they make bird-lime; of the trunk, they make their canoes, the frames of their houses, and out of it they carve their gods. It is their emblem of plenty

and prosperity, as much as the olive of Spain and Attica, or the milk and honey of Palestine. Describe to a native of Madison Island," says Commodore Porter," a country abounding in every thing that we consider desirable, and after you have done he will ask you if it produces bread-fruit. A country is nothing to them without that, and the season for bread-fruit, is the season of joy and festivity." The natives are described in the "Journal" as honest and friendly, brave, generous, benevolent, acute, ingenious and intelligent. They are a handsome people; the men uncommonly tall, and well shaped, with regular features and an ingenuous expression of face; and the women, though generally less beautiful than the men, have fine eyes and teeth, are acute and vivacious, and particularly distinguished for the beauty of their hands. The dress of the women, which is becoming and decent, consists of three parts; the head-dress, made of a fine cloth of an open texture like gauze, and put on so as to resemble a close cap; the robe, which is a long and flowing piece of cloth, of a close and firm texture, knotted on the shoulder and extending to the ankles; and a garment like a petticoat, consisting of a piece of cloth which passes twice round the waist and hangs down below the knee. For ornaments they have round pieces of ivory, or whales' teeth hung in their ears; they wear beads and strings of red berries on their necks, and when they are not tabooed or interdicted, they ornament their heads with plumage formed of the feather of the cock, and anoint themselves with cocoa-nut oil mixed with a red paint made from turmeric root, which tends to remove the yellowness of the skin. The men dress but little, tattooing serving for a substitute, and in this, much taste and variety is exhibited. The men as well as the women are fond of ornaments, and whales' teeth are in more request than any thing else, some of the finest of them being considered as worth a fortune. The origin of the Washington Islands, as well as of all the South Sea islands, is volcanic; their surface is irregular and broken, like that of the Gallapagos, but from their greater age, a much deeper and more prolific soil has been formed, and they have become abundantly furnished for the accommodation of man. With the following abstract, from commodore Porter's Journal of the manner in which they were first peopled, we shall close our account of these interesting islands and their inhabitants. "According to tradition, Oataia

and Ovanova or Ananoona, his wife, came from an island called Vavao (somewhere below Nooaheevah) and peopled this island. It is said he brought with him a variety of plants, and that his forty children, with the exception of one, (Po, or night) were named after those plants. Now, among the group of Friendly Islands, is a fine island called Vavao, which produces every thing in common with Tongataboo, and the other islands of the group, the productions of which differ little from those of Nooaheevah. The Friendly Islands are about thirty-five degrees to the westward of the Washington Group, and this circumstance may by some be considered an insurmountable obstacle to the navigation from the former to the latter group, on the supposition that the winds in this region always blow from the eastward. But this is not the case; the winds, sometimes for several days together, blow from the north-west, as well as from the south-west, and remove all difficulties as to the navigation from the leeward to the windward islands; and this I myself experienced on leaving the islands, for in three days from the time of my departure, I made nine degrees of longitude easterly, the winds blowing chiefly from N. N. E. to N. W; therefore a continuation of winds equally favourable would have enabled me in twelve days to have navigated from the Friendly to the Washington Islands: but it is not likely that the N. W. or S. W. winds prevail for so long a period at any one time, nor was it necessary that Oataia should have made so short a passage; he had many places where he could stop and recruit among the Society Islands and the Archipelago situated to windward, as well as many other islands scattered along his track. On his arrival at one island they could inform him of the existence of another, further to windward; and his adventurous spirit led him on from island to island, until he reached Nooaheevah. Captain Cook made several experiments as to the sailing of the canoes of the Society Islands, and found, with the breezes which generally blow in that sea, that they would sail close hauled, on an average, seven or eight miles an hour, which, it must be acknowledged, is very good sailing; and if this was the case, of which we have no reason to doubt, all difficulties, as to the passage of Oataia, from Vavao to Nooaheevah seem removed. Indeed, the inhabitants of all these islands speak nearly the same language and are the same people."

We shall now visit Pitcairn's Island, and take a brief survey of its interesting colony. In the year 1789 the British ship Bounty, William Bligh, master, was employed to transport the bread-fruit tree from Otaheite to the West indies. While on this service, off the island of Tofoa a part of the crew, headed by Fletcher Christian, mutinied, put the master and the rest of the crew, consisting of eighteen per sons, into an open boat, made an unsuccessful attempt to form a settlement, on the island of Toobuai, with some men and women from Otaheite,-returned from Toobuai to Otaheite, from which place, Christian, with nine of the mutineers and a small number of the natives, men and women, again took his departure, on the night of the 21st of September, 1789, and was heard of no more, until the year 1808, when Mayhew Folger of Nantucket, in Massachusetts, found the only remaining mutineer, by the name of Alexander Smith, at Pitcairn's Island. Of the fate of Christian and his companions, together with the present state of the settlement made by them, we gather the following history from lieutenant Shillibeer. In her passage from Nooaheevah to Valparaiso, the Briton unexpectedly came in sight of Pitcairn's Island, and upon seeing some canoes putting off from the shore, she hove to, and the islanders came on board. This was in the morning. The crew of the Briton were much astonished at being hailed and conversed with in their own language, in this remote and new-detected corner of the earth, but the wonder was soon cleared up. "After the friendly salutation of good-morrow, sir,” says the lieutenant, "from the first man who entered, Mackey, for that was his name, 'do you know,' said he, 'one William Bligh, in England? This question threw a new light on the subject, and he was immediately asked if he knew one Christian. The reply was given with so much natural simplicity that I shall here use his proper words. "O yes," said he, " very well, his son is in the boat there coming up, his name is Friday Fletcher October Christian, his father is dead now-he was shot by a black fellow." The information given by Mackey and his ompanions was, that Christian was shot by a black fellow, i. e. an Otaheitan, in consequence of a jealousy which existed between the people of Otaheite and the English, on account of the women; that the Otaheitan was afterwards shot by an Englishman; that the Otaheitans the rose, shot twe Englishmen, and wounded John

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