or fourteen, and their parents are quite
proud of the fact. The more lovers a girl has the more she is
respected. As long as she is not married she leads a most dissolute
life, and it is said that not all the married women make the most
faithful wives possible.

I had frequent opportunities of seeing the national dances, which
are the most unbecoming I ever beheld, although every painter would
envy me my good fortune. Let the reader picture to himself a grove
of splendid palms, and other gigantic trees of the torrid zone, with
a number of open huts, and a crowd of good-humoured islanders
assembled beneath, to greet, in their fashion, the lovely evening,
which is fast approaching. Before one of the huts a circle is
formed, and in the centre sit two herculean and half-naked natives,
beating time most vigorously on small drums. Five similar colossi
are seated before them, moving the upper parts of their bodies in
the most horrible and violent manner, and more especially the arms,
hands, and fingers; the latter they have the power of moving in
every separate joint. I imagine, that by these gestures they
desired to represent how they pursue their enemy, ridicule his
cowardice, rejoice at their victory, and so forth. During all this
time they howl continually in a most discordant manner, and make the
most hideous faces. At the commencement, the men appear alone upon
the scene of action, but after a short time two female forms dart
forward from among the spectators, and dance and rave like two
maniacs; the more unbecoming, bold, and indecent their gestures, the
greater the applause. The whole affair does not, at most, last
longer than two minutes, and the pause before another dance is
commenced not much longer. An evening's amusement of this
description often lasts for hours. The younger members of society
very seldom take any part in the dances.

It is a great question whether the immorality of these islanders has
been lessened by French civilization. From my own observations, as
well as from what I was told by persons well informed on the
subject, I should say that this has not yet been the case, and that,
for the present, there is but little hope of its being so: while,
on the other side, the natives have acquired a number of useless
wants, in consequence of which, the greed for gold has been
fearfully awakened in their breasts. As they are naturally very
lazy, and above all things disinclined to work, the