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PRESENTS FROM THE KING.

those who are favoured with such gifts from great men, are expected to make returns of something more valuable to the mercenary donors.

Oct. 12. A considerable number of chiefs waited upon us, with a great train of attendants, bringing various presents, consisting of hogs and fruits. When we went out to receive them, the whole party were sitting on their heels in silence, with their faces towards the house, at the distance of twenty yards from the present-the pigs being tied up, and the fruits spread upon the ground. At our appearance they all rose, and the chiefs informed us of the object of their visit. According to the custom, in such cases, we went and looked at the gifts, but our feelings compelled us to go beyond the usual courtesy, and express our sense of their kindness thus manifested to strangers. A present from the king to us, having been announced, we went to the house of Manaonao, (Pomare's vicegerent at Tahiti, during his absence,) at Papeete, where his majesty has a house, it being necessary that his bounty should be administered on his own premises. We were then informed by the old chief (who is old and grievously afflicted with a species of elephantiasis,) that the presents were made to us in the name, not only of the king, but of the chiefs, the people, and the missionaries, to the deputies of the London Society, and those who had accompanied us hither. There were five hogs, a great bundle of native cloth, as much as three men could lift, and a large quantity of cocoa-nuts, bananas, and mountain plantains. We were requested to look at these things, which we did, and, as in the former case, expressed as well as we could, our pleasure on receiving such tokens of friendship from the king and the several classes of his subjects, which had been named to us.

HIRO, THE GOD OF THIEVES.

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Having frequent occasion to recur to the former state of society in these islands, we have just heard, that among other idols there was a god of thieves, held by his worshippers in the highest honour. He was called Hiro, and among his votaries were many of the cleverest men, not from the lower ranks only, but even some of the principal chiefs. The arts and contrivances which these resorted to, in order to obtain the property of their neighbours and strangers, proved that this strange representative of Satan was served with more than ordinary devotion. His rites were celebrated in darkness, at the change of the moon. While the husband prowled forth to rob, the wife went to the marae to pray for his success; yet, if success were not always found, it would be with an ill grace if they should charge Hiro with bad faith towards his followers, for faithful as they were in making vows, they were knavish enough in performing them; thus, if a hog had been stolen, an inch or two of the end of the tail was deemed a sufficient thank-offering to him. With this in his hand, the thief went to the marae, and laying it down on the ground, he would say cantingly, "Here, good Hiro, is a piece of the pig that I stole last night for you, but don't you tell.” Then he would slink away, persuading himself that, if he had wronged his neighbour, he had not wronged his god, though, to do his ingenuity justice, he had tied such a triple knot of villainy, that it would be a nice point for a casuist to determine, whether he had cheated his neighbour, his god, or himself, the most.

An idea of the savage barbarity with which wars were accustomed to be carried on among these tribes, may be formed from the horrible weapons with which they mangled and slew one another. Among these, there was what might be called a trident; an instrument, consisting of a long

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MISSIONARIES PREPARE A CODE OF LAWS.

shaft, to the head of which were attached three spines from the tail of the ray-fish. These are strong, sharp bones, deeply barbed; and they were so artfully fastened, that, when struck into the body of an enemy, they were instantly detached from the handle, and remained rankling in the wound, from which the barbs prevented their being withdrawn. To be pierced by one of these, was almost certain death, and death accompanied by the most excruciating torture.

But when the gospel changed their hearts, it softened their manners, and enlightened their understandings. Finding their religion to be false, they suspected that every thing else by which they had been ruled must be wrong—their customs, their manners, their legislation. Hence, at their paraprouras, or conversations for improvement, instituted by the missionaries, they would frequently solicit information, not on moral and religious subjects only, but also on government and jurisprudence. The missionaries, however, always referred them to the king and the chiefs, when questions of policy were put to them, saying, that they came not thither to meddle with the laws and civil institutions, but to teach them the true religion, which would itself prepare them to receive and practise what was true, and right, and good, in every other respect. At length the king himself requested their assistance in forming a new code of laws, founded on scriptural authority and principles. Even this they declined as long as they could with propriety, but being often importuned, they consented to prepare a code of legislation, suited to the changed circumstances of the people. This, though necessarily imperfect, in the first instance, but capable of being improved from time to time, as observation or experience might warrant, did great credit to those who framed it, to the king

TATOOING ABANDONED.

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who adopted it, and to the people who submitted to a system of polity and jurisprudence so essentially different from that under which they had lived. The practice of tatooing their persons was one in which all classes delighted, but which they willingly abandoned, as associated with idolatry and licentiousness, when they received a purer religion. It was made a crime under the new laws, and when committed (which is very rare indeed) punished with very great severity. Such sacrifices of passion, pride, superstition, vanity, self-indulgence, ferocity, with all the malignant and inveterate evils in which they had been nurtured, have seldom been made by whole nations at once, as, on the adoption of Christianity, were resolutely, spontaneously, and almost universally made by the people of these small islands, each of which was in fact a country by itself, and the few hundreds or thousands of its inhabitants a distinct nation.

We left Papaeete about noon, this day, (Oct. 10.) and sailed, with a pleasant breeze, in Mr. Bicknell's boat, for Eimeo, which lies twenty-five miles from this harbour; presenting, as we approached it, a landscape on the sea, whence it rises, and on which it seems to repose under the blue firmament, having an undulated outline, that swells, from the coral-reefed shore, to the elevation of three or four thousand feet at its sharp pointed summits. In one of the highest of these peaks there is a hole, open to the sky beyond, which may be seen through it. Tradition says, that the god Pae being angry with this island, shot an arrow at it from Tahiti, which passed through the heart of the rock, leaving this orifice behind, as a memorial of his prowess. On the south side of the same eminence is a vast amphitheatre, which in the last war, commenced by the idolatrous party against the king and his Christian adherents,

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STROLLING PLAYERS.

was selected by Pomare as a place of refuge, in the issue of his being defeated and driven from his own island by the rebels. In this natural strong hold, almost impregnable to barbarian assailants, he hoped to be able to conceal himself and his friends, including the missionaries, till eventual safety could be secured. The battle, however, was in favour of the righteous cause; idolatry itself was overthrown by the decision of that day, and those whom his arms had not destroyed in the conflict, his clemency afterwards subdued and endeared to his sway.

As we drew near the island, Mr. Nott added to the pleasure which we felt in contemplating the majestic scenery before our eyes, by relating various circumstances of the age gone by, and the new one that is begun. During the former period, there was a description of persons, called Papaiaomu, (Areois) a kind of strolling players, who went about the country, from one chief's district to another, reciting stories and singing songs for the entertainment of the people. The stories were called Aamu, and were dramatic in form, so that several speakers might take their distinct parts, and not merely recite but act them. These compositions, we are told, frequently did credit to the talents of the authors, while the accuracy and liveliness with which they were repeated shewed considerable powers of memory as well as of imitation in the performances. But they were connected with unutterable abominations, and therefore have been entirely discontinued since purer manners have followed in the train of Christian principles. The licentious dancers, the barbarous cock-fightings (for these were favourite games formerly), with other detestable and cruel sports, have been likewise abandoned; the natives confining themselves to the innocent and healthful exercises necessary in fishing, sailing, climbing trees, &c., in pursuing their daily