, and in a land where the law
of Christ, however imperfectly obeyed, is acknowledged in some sort as
the standard.

The wind being fair, we sail north-east towards the Marquesas.

We have been for ten days at the anchorage of Taogou, off the island of
Ohevahoa, the most fertile of the Marquesas. We have been engaged most
profitably in purchasing sandal-wood, and hogs, and fruits, and
vegetables of all sorts, and Phineas Golding is in high spirits, and
declares that these are a people truly after his own heart. Their
country certainly is beautiful, for though the mountains are not so
lofty as those of the islands we have lately left, they equally please
the eye, as do the groves, the valleys, and the waterfalls. The men are
tall, handsome, and athletic, and the women are scarcely inferior in
beauty to those of Tahiti. Alas, that I can say no more in their
praise. Both men and women are most depraved, of which we have constant
evidence. Hitherto we have been on good terms with these islanders. We
have a strict watch kept, and whatever may be their secret disposition,
they have had no opportunity of taking us at advantage. Taro warns us
to be on our guard. He tells us that they are treacherous, and that if
they thought they would gain by murdering every man of our crew they
would do so. Taro understands their language, which is much like that
of Tahiti and his own country. The men are much tattooed, their only
clothing being a piece of native cloth round their loins, but the women
wear a petticoat and a mantle over the shoulder. This cloth is made of
the fibre of a sort of mulberry tree--not woven, but beaten into a
consistency of paper. When torn the rent is mended by beating on a
fresh piece. It will bear washing only once. A garment thus lasts
about six weeks. The women are better treated than among most Indian
tribes. Their occupations are entirely domestic--they manufacture
cloth, cook, tend the house, and look after the children, but from all
we hear and see, their morals are degraded in the extreme.

Having completed refitting the ship as far as is necessary, I have been
able to go on shore. We form a strong body, twelve officers and men in
all, with muskets. Our chief object is to visit a valley where the
sandal-wood grows, to learn on what supply we can depend. High up the
valley we come suddenly on a platform on which grows a large grove of
bread-fruit, cocoa-nut, toa, and other trees. Amid