tering Papeite Harbour (possibly on account
of his strained relations with the French naval authorities) he made
his way to the Marquesas. Here some four or five of his lady passengers
elected to remain with newly-found lovers, either white or native; and
Bully always blessed the union of two happy hearts by recording the
affair in his humorously-kept log and giving a spree. If the bridegroom
was a white man, Bully would also "buy" his oil, fungus and cotton, make
him very drunk, place his laughing and blushing bride in his arms, and
then, in his absent-minded way, see him over the side into his boat and
sail away without paying. Bully used to say that his defective memory
was the cause of all the malignant slanders set afloat about him. And,
as regarded women, he used to remark he also suffered from the curious
complaint of "moral astigmatism." The rest of the girls reached home
somehow, after undergoing a pleasant and varied experience, each being
the happy possessor of one of his peculiar and characteristically
written testimonials.

It was Bully's humour to give these precious documents to the
time-expired members of his harem, in the same manner as an English
mistress would give a certificate of character and efficiency to a
departing maid. Some of these papers are still extant in Tahiti and
Mangareva. Many years ago when buying turtle at the little island of
Rurutu, I saw one pasted on a doorpost in a native house. In the Western
Carolines and the Pelew Group, when whale ships were plentiful and
prosperous, the native girls preserved these "characters" by gumming
the paper (often upside down) on a piece of pandanus leaf bordered with
devices in bead-work. When a fresh ship arrived, the damsels would
bind these around their pretty little foreheads after the manner of
phylacteries--and they were always read with deep interest by the
blubber-hunting skippers and mates and the after-guard generally.
Bully's "characters" ran somewhat in this wise:--

TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.

I, William H. Hayes, hereby certify that the bearer of this,
Marutahina of Vahitahi, was with me for four or five months,
and I can confidently say that I can recommend her to any
one in need of an active young wife, general help, or to do
chores. She is a very good girl, and the sole support of her
mother--an old thief with a tattooed back who lives on Beka
Beka.

*****

About 1871, the newspapers