our position, almost suspended on the mountain side, there were
glimpses into the depths of the neighbouring valleys; and the lofty
points of the central mountains, towering up within sixty degrees of
the zenith, hid half the evening sky. Thus seated, it was a sublime
spectacle to watch the shades of night gradually obscuring the last and
highest pinnacles.
Before we laid ourselves down to sleep, the elder Tahitian fell on his
knees, and with closed eyes repeated a long prayer in his native
tongue. He prayed as a Christian should do, with fitting reverence,
and without the fear of ridicule or any ostentation of piety. At our
meals neither of the men would taste food, without saying beforehand a
short grace. Those travellers who think that a Tahitian prays only when
the eyes of the missionary are fixed on him, should have slept with us
that night on the mountain-side. Before morning it rained very
heavily; but the good thatch of banana-leaves kept us dry.
November 19th.--At daylight my friends, after their morning prayer,
prepared an excellent breakfast in the same manner as in the evening.
They themselves certainly partook of it largely; indeed I never saw any
men eat near so much. I suppose such enormously capacious stomachs
must be the effect of a large part of their diet consisting of fruit
and vegetables, which contain, in a given bulk, a comparatively small
portion of nutriment. Unwittingly, I was the means of my companions
breaking, as I afterwards learned, one of their own laws, and
resolutions: I took with me a flask of spirits, which they could not
refuse to partake of; but as often as they drank a little, they put
their fingers before their mouths, and uttered the word "Missionary."
About two years ago, although the use of the ava was prevented,
drunkenness from the introduction of spirits became very prevalent. The
missionaries prevailed on a few good men, who saw that their country
was rapidly going to ruin, to join with them in a Temperance Society.
From good sense or shame, all the chiefs and the queen were at last
persuaded to join. Immediately a law was passed, that no spirits
should be allowed to be introduced into the island, and that he who
sold and he who bought the forbidden article should be punished by a
fine. With remarkable justice, a certain period was allowed for stock
in hand to be sold, before the law came into effect. But when it did,
a general search was made, in which even the houses of the missionaries
were not exempted, and all the ava (as the natives call all ardent
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