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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 Commodore, " 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 superior 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 whitebess 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;

this they chew and swallow the juice. There are, besides, the kava, a root which possesses an intoxicating quality, and of 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 candies; 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

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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, ingenigus 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. 66 According to tradition, Qataia

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and Ovanova or Ananoona, his wife, came froin 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 persons, into an open boat, made an unsuc cessful attempt to form a settlement, on the island of Toobuai, with some men and women from Otahcite,-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 depar ture, 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 Nooaheeval 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. “Afterthe 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 companions 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 then rose, shot two Englishmen, and wounded John

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Adams, the only remaining Englishman
on the island, who saved his life by es-
eaping to the woods; that the women,
enraged at the murder of the whites, to
whom they were more attached than to
their countrymen, rose and put every Ota-
heitan to death, and that Adams, now
old, was enjoying good health. Christian
had with him nine white men, six Ota-
heitan men, and eleven women; there
were on the island, when the Briton
touched, forty-eight in all. Christian was
shot about two years after his arrival at
the island. His son, Friday Fletcher
October, was the first person born on
the island, and was about twenty-two
years old. They marry at about 19 or
20 years of age, and are allowed only
one wife. Adams had taught them the
Christian religion as far as he was able,
and upon being asked "in what do you
believe," Mackey replied, "I believe in
God the Father Almighty," &c. going
through with the whole of the Belief.
Their manners were very gentle, their
principles pure, their sentiments benevo-
lent, and their whole conversation and de-
portment marked with the most interest
ing simplicity. They generally speak
English, but they understand the Otahei-
tan. They were very inquisitive, and
their questions evinced excellent natural
endowments. The young islanders were
much surprised and amused with the ap-
pearance of a dog and a cow on board,
which were the first they had ever seen.
Their village, built with great regularity,
is situated on a gentle eminence, and sur-
rounded by cocoa and bread-fruit trees.
The houses are small, but perfectly clean
and very convenient. Adams is repre-
sented as a fine looking old man, about
sixty years of age, very much beloved and
revered by all his subjects, over whom
he exercises a mild, parental government.
"The young women," says the Lieuten-
ant, "have invariably beautiful teeth, fine
eyes, an open expression of countenance,
and looks of such simple innocence and
sweet sensibility, as to render their ap-
pearance at once interesting and engag-
ing, and it is pleasing to add, their minds
and manners were as pure and innocent
as their appearance indicated. Their
dress consisted of a full garment, reach-
ing from the waist to the knees, and a

mantle thrown over the shoulders and
hanging down to the ankles: the latter,
however, was occasionally laid aside, and
the whole bust exposed, which exhibited
the finest proportion. The young men
are finely formed, of manly features, and
their height is about five feet and ten
inches. Their hair is black and long, and
generally braided. They wear a straw
hat, similar to those worn by sailors, with
a few feathers stuck into them by way
of ornament." Their dress consists of a
sort of cloak or mantle thrown over the
shoulders and hanging down to the knee,
and a girdle round the loins, both of
which garments are of cloth made of
bark. The island is fertile and every
part capable of cultivation. The coast is
rocky, and the inhabitants do not leave
their boats on the beach, where the
surf would destroy them, but they take
them to the village, and being made of a
very light wood, this is easily done. Each
family has a separate allotment of land,
and they strive to outdo each other in the
cultivation of the earth. The yam is the
principal object of cultivation, and they
raise as fine ones here as any in the
world. "The bread-fruit and the cocoa-
nut trees were brought with them in the
Bounty, and have been reared with great
success. Pigs, also, came by the same
conveyance, as well as goats and poultry.
The pigs have got into the woods and
many are now wild. Fish of various sorts
are taken here, and in great abundance;
the tackling is all of their own manufac-
turing, and the hooks, although beat out
of old iron hoops, not only answer the
purpose, but are fairly made. Needles,
also, they make of the same materials."
The island is about six miles long and
three broad; the soil, as indicated by the
growth of the trees, with which it is well
stocked, is very fertile. The island lies
in twenty-five degrees south latitude. The
whole community live in the utmost har-
mony with each other, are strongly at-
tached to their home; and if the officious,
meddlesome spirit of European enterprise
does not interfere with their condition,
they will, doubtless, long continue to ex-
hibit an engaging and beautiful specimen
of unsophisticated nature.

L.

ART. France. By Lady Morgan. New-York. James Eastburn and Co. 12mo. 2 vol. pp. 727.

IN

N announcing this publication, in our last number, we expressed an opinion generally of its merits. We are not inclined to retract what we have there said, nor has the work grown so much in our estimation, from a more attentive perusal, as to make it necessary to add much to the commendation we have already bestowed upon it. As a literary production it has no claim to praise. There is not a page in these volumes that does not offend by some violation of syntax; and the want of perspicuity, which must inevitably result from ungrammatical construction,is unfortunately increased by a ridiculous affectation of turgid phraseology. Lady Morgan is ambitious of possessing a style. She cannot consent to make the most trifling observation in common language. The vernacular is altogether too vulgar for her notions of gentility, and her endeavours to avoid it are for ever apparent. At least one half of every sentence consists of expletives, introduced for the sake of euphony. The equipoise of her periods reminds us of the ingenious practice of some people we have read of, who balance a bag of corn in one pannier by putting stones in the other. Mannerism is a fault into which many great writers have fallen, though it is not on that account the less a fault, whilst it is the more to be regretted, but the pretensions of common-place thinkers to peculiarity serve only to render insipidity disgusting. The fate of the ape who undertook to flourish his master's razor should be a lesson to all imitators. Lady Morgan is evidently striving to rise to the level of those who are at least a head taller than herself, and tries in vain to make up for want of stature by stepping on tiptoe. We are sorry to be obliged to treat her ladyship so discourteously. We honour her sex, and had we discovered more of its attributes in her present production, could easily have pardoned the vanity and ignorance which it betrays, but the flippancy with which she deals out her political dogmas, and the eagerness with which she seizes every occasion to sneer not only at superstition, but at christianity, to say nothing of grosser indelicacies, of which she is frequently guilty, are sufficiently unfeminine to excuse us for sometimes forgetting that of which her ladyship is herself so mimindful. If we have been deficient in respect, her

ladyship's freedom has given a warrant to our liberties.

Since Buonaparte's abdication of the imperial throne, the English press has teemed with the journals of impatient tourists who have visited France. In all the tableaux thus exhibited of the condition of that country and of the character of its inhabitants, the prejudices of the painter may be traced. The most amusing sketches of the manners of the French people, that we have seen, are contained in Scott's' Visit to Paris,' and 'Paris Revised,' and Paul's letters to his Kinsfolk.' These however are caricatures, though they may preserve traits of close resemblance. But if some travellers have made themselves merry at the chapfaln faces of the loungers in the Louvre, others have cordially entered into their chagrins, and boldly stood forth in their cause. From the discordant reports of observers we draw, on the whole, an inference favourable to France. The state of society has meliorated by the revolution, though its benefits have been dearly pur

chased.

Lady Morgan carried into France the feelings of a native of Ireland. Her experience of legitimate government at home, led to no pleasing anticipation of its effects abroad. All the happiness which she discovered, she immediately imputed to the benign influence of institutions which had emanated from the popular will, and all the misery that she saw or apprehended, she was ready to ascribe to the policy of those who had been reinstated in power with the same dispositions which had incurred its loss. If there be a fallacy in her reasoning, the general grounds of her argument are, nevertheless, correct. But we do not despair of the progress of liberal ideas in Europe, nor can we believe that their advancement is like to be retarded by the overthrow of the gigantic despotism of Napoleon. The comparative feebleness of existing dynasties affords some security against encroachment on the rights of the people, even if there be no inclination to enlarge them. It is foreign to our purpose, however, to pursue this discussion.

The actual state of the French peasantry is contrasted by lady Morgan with the degrading servitude which they endured under the feudal system. Instead of being appurtenant to the soil and trans

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