circles, lozenges, &c.; the patterns are usually taken т from nature, and are often some of the most graceful. A cocoa-nut tree is a favourite object; and I have often admired the taste displayed in the marking of a chiefs' legs, when I have seen a cocoa-nut tree correctly and distinctly drawn, its root spreading at the heel, its elastic stalk pencilled as it were along the tendon, and its waving plume gracefully spread out on the broad part of the calf. Sometimes a couple of stems would be twined up from the heel, and divided on the calf, each bearing a plume of leaves.

The ornaments round the ankle, and upon the instep, make them often appear as if they wore the elegant Eastern sandal. The sides of the legs are sometimes tataued from the ankle upward, which gives the appearance of wearing pantaloons with ornamented seams. From the lower part of the back, a number of straight, waved, or zigzag lines, rise in the direction of the spine, and branch off regularly towards the shoulders. But, of the upper part of the body, the chest is the most tataued. Every variety of figure is to be seen here. Cocoa-nut and bread-fruit trees, with convolvolus wreaths hanging round them, boys gathering the fruit, men engaged in battle, in the manual exercise, triumphing over a fallen foe; or, as I have frequently seen it, they are represented as carrying a human sacrifice to the temple. Every kind of animal-goats, dogs, fowls, and fish-may at times be seen on this part of the body; muskets, swords, pistols, clubs, spears, and other weapons of war, are also stamped upon their arms or chest.

They are not all crowded upon the same person, but each one makes a selection according to his fancy; and I have frequently thought the tatauing on a man's person

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racter.

might serve as an index to his disposition and his chaThe neck and throat were sometimes singularly marked. The head and the ears were also tataued, though among the Tahitians this ornament was seldom applied to the face.

The females used the tatau more sparingly than the men, and with greater taste. It was always the custom of the natives to go barefooted, and the feet, to an inch above the ankles, of the chief women, were often neatly tataued; appearing as if they wore a loose kind of san

elegant open-worked boot. The arms were frequently marked with circles, their fingers with rings, and their wrists with bracelets. The thin transparent skin over the black dye, often gave to the tatau a tinge of blue.

The females seldom, if ever, marked their faces; the figures on their feet and hands were all the ornaments they exhibited. Many suffered much from the pain occasioned by the operation, and from the swelling and inflammation that followed, which often continued for a long time, and ultimately proved fatal. This, however, seldom deterred others from attempting to secure this badge of distinction or embellishment of person.

On account of the immoral practices invariably connected with the process of tatauing, the chiefs prohibited it altogether, and, excepting a few foreign seamen, who often evinced as great a desire to have some figure tataued on their arms or hands, as the natives themselves, there had not been an individual marked for some years.

In the month of July, we heard that a number, about forty-six young persons, had been marking themselves. The principal chiefs came to ask our opinion, as to what

they should do, there were so many of them. Formerly, they said, the disobedience of so numerous a party to any order of the chiefs, would have been considered equivalent to a declaration of war, and they should have sent armed men after them at once, and either have slain or banished the delinquents; but now, as they had laws, they wished to know whether it would be right that they should all be tried, and, if found guilty, have the sentence annexed to the crime pronounced against them.

We told the chiefs it would not be wrong, and the next morning attended the trial. It was conducted with the greatest candour and forbearance on the part of the magistrates and accusers, and an equal degree of submission on the part of the offenders, though it appeared they had supposed that from their numbers, and the circumstance of one or two young chiefs of distinction being among them, the government would not have noticed their conduct. They were sentenced to build a certain quantity of stone-work on the margin of the

sea.

In a day or two afterwards, it was discovered that Taaroarii, the king's son, a youth about eighteen years of age, had also been tataued; and this being considered as an expression of his disapprobation of his father's conduct, and of his determination as to the conduct he designed to pursue, produced a great sensation among the people. His venerable father was deeply affected, and the struggle between affection for his son, and his duty to the people, was evidently strong. The latter prevailed; he directed him to be tried, and attended him to the trial: here he affectionately admonished his son to profit by his experience, and warned the spectators, telling them not to be deceived, and suppose that the

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laws, by which they had mutually agreed to be governed, would be violated with impunity. Some of the latter observed, If the king's son does not escape, what will become of the common men?..

Taaroarii, the chief of Sir Charles Sanders' Island, and the expected successor to his father in the sovereignty of Huahine, was now obliged to dive into the sea for coral, and assist in building the portion of stone-work allotted to him. His friends and attendants performed the greater part of the labour; still there was a feeling of pride, that would not allow him to stand altogether idle. I visited his house one evening, and entered freely into conversation with him on the subject. He observed, that he was sorry for what he had done, but appeared to indicate, that he did not wish it to be thought that the work assigned him was any punishment.

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Several unsteady young men and women, who followed the example of the first party, were also tried, and sentenced to similar punishments; and afterwards two principal personages in the island, by having their bodies tataued, joined their party: these two were the son of the king of Raiatea, who was residing at Huahine, and his sister, who had been married to a member of Mahine's family. Their party was now strong, both in point of number and influence, and we expected that the simple circumstance of marking the person with tatau, was only one of the preliminaries of their design; and in this we were not mistaken.

In the month of August, we heard that Taaroarii, with a number of those whom the chiefs had sentenced to labour on the public works, had left their employment, and were gone to Parea, in the northern part of the island. They told the officers of the chief appointed to

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superintend them, that they intended in a few days to return. The people were greatly attached to the king's son, and the officers, willing to shew him every indulgence, did not oppose his removal; but reports were soon circulated, that he was employing emissaries to invite the disaffected to join him, with the assurance that as soon as they were strong enough, he intended to assume the government of the island, and abolish the laws that under his reign every one should follow his own inclinations, with regard to those customs which the laws prohibited. His father being absent at Raiatea, he had judged the present a favourable time for making a vigorous effort.

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On the evening of the ninth of September, which was the Sabbath, a messenger came from the chiefs while we were engaged at family prayers, informing me that a large party of wild young men had gone to Parea, and that the son of the king of Raiatea was pre--paring to follow them. I went down to his dwelling; his wife and several of his principal men were per suading him to remain, and not unite himself with those whose designs were evidently unfavourable to the peace of the island. I mingled my entreaties with theirs, but it was of no use. His own men, finding he could not be deterred unless by violence, desisted; while a number of young fellows, like-minded with himself, urging him to depart, he hastened after the party that had gone to Parea. As soon as Hautia, the deputy-governor of the island, heard it, he gave orders for the people to prepare to go, and fetch them back the next day.

On the following morning, accompanied by Messrs. Darling and Bourn, I went down to the settlement about sunrise, to witness the proceedings of an assembly con