spirits) was poured on the ground. When one reflects on the effect of
intemperance on the aborigines of the two Americas, I think it will be
acknowledged that every well-wisher of Tahiti owes no common debt of
gratitude to the missionaries. As long as the little island of St.
Helena remained under the government of the East India Company,
spirits, owing to the great injury they had produced, were not allowed
to be imported; but wine was supplied from the Cape of Good Hope. It
is rather a striking and not very gratifying fact, that in the same
year that spirits were allowed to be sold in Helena, their use was
banished from Tahiti by the free will of the people.
After breakfast we proceeded on our Journey. As my object was merely
to see a little of the interior scenery, we returned by another track,
which descended into the main valley lower down. For some distance we
wound, by a most intricate path, along the side of the mountain which
formed the valley. In the less precipitous parts we passed through
extensive groves of the wild banana. The Tahitians, with their naked,
tattooed bodies, their heads ornamented with flowers, and seen in the
dark shade of these groves, would have formed a fine picture of man
inhabiting some primeval land. In our descent we followed the line of
ridges; these were exceedingly narrow, and for considerable lengths
steep as a ladder; but all clothed with vegetation. The extreme care
necessary in poising each step rendered the walk fatiguing. I did not
cease to wonder at these ravines and precipices: when viewing the
country from one of the knife-edged ridges, the point of support was so
small, that the effect was nearly the same as it must be from a
balloon. In this descent we had occasion to use the ropes only once,
at the point where we entered the main valley. We slept under the same
ledge of rock where we had dined the day before: the night was fine,
but from the depth and narrowness of the gorge, profoundly dark.
Before actually seeing this country, I found it difficult to understand
two facts mentioned by Ellis; namely, that after the murderous battles
of former times, the survivors on the conquered side retired into the
mountains, where a handful of men could resist a multitude. Certainly
half a dozen men, at the spot where the Tahitian reared the old tree,
could easily have repulsed thousands. Secondly, that after the
introduction of Christianity, there were wild men who lived in the
mountains, and whose retreats were unknown to the more civilized
inhabitants.
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