36

QUEEN OF RAIATEA

separated by a small inclosure of grass and shrubbery.

We were shown into this, while the queen, who was at another residence, was informed of our wish to see her. The wood work is neatly painted, the floors covered with fine mats, and the walls lined with settees of native workmanship, from the timber of the bread-fruit, with seats and backs of beautifully braided cord of the fibre of the cocoanut husk. We took the liberty of opening the doors of the adjoining rooms, and found them all furnished with well-made bedsteads, covered with several thicknesses of soft mats, in place of matresses, and spread with counterpanes of India print. A drapery of white tapa, or native cloth, around the windows and on canopies over the beds, gave an air of great neatness and comfort to the whole. Many of the cottages of the common people, into which we looked, bear, both within and without, similar marks of order and respectability.

1

The queen soon arrived, attended by four or five pretty looking young women, in European dresses. She is fifty or sixty years of age, and highly respectable in her appearance, with traces of early beauty still discoverable, in her features and expression of countenance. Her dress was a loose slip of white cambric, with a pau, or native petticoat, of blue and white, in cross-bar over it; and a long shawl and straw bonnet. She is very sedate in her manners; and deported herself with great propriety during the interview. Immediately after the arrival of the Vincennes, an express had been dispatched for the king,

AND KING TAMATOA.

37.

and she informed us, that he would probably reach Raiatea early the same evening.

This was the case; and yesterday morning, Captain Finch, accompanied by the surgeon and Lieutenants Dornin, Magruder, Lardner, and myself, waited upon him. him. We were received in the same room as on the preceding day; and the interview with Mr. Williams, as interpreter, was interesting and pleasant. Tamatoa, without being corpulent, is one of the tallest and largest men I ever saw. Standing, when he rises-in gigantic proportions of limb and muscle-fully a head and shoulders above all around him. He is dignified in his manner, and converses with much good sense and intelligence. The captain informed him of the general objects of the visit of the Vincennes to the South Seas; of the policy he was instructed by our government, and desirous himself, to pursue; and tendered the services of the ship, in any manner he might wish, during the period of our stay. He expressed himself much gratified, and thankful for the kindness of the government, and the politeness of the commander of the man-of-war.

On our way to the mission house, afterwards, we made a second call upon his wife, at a house occupied by her during the visit of the queen of Tahiti, to whom she has relinquished the use of the principal royal establishment. The building is a fine specimen of the original, native style of architecture— an oval some sixty feet in the longest diameter-surmounted by a beautiful roof of thatch, ten or twelve feet high at the eaves, and twenty or more in the

38

THE QUEEN'S COTTAGE

centre. The sides and ends are composed of straight, round poles fastened perpendicularly in the ground, and lashed together at regular intervals of an inch, so as to admit an abundance of light and air within. The poles being of a white wood, and the thatch finished with the greatest neatness, the whole has a very pretty aspect; and would furnish a model for a rustic pavilion, or summer house, in a park at home. The ground strewn with grass and laid with mats, constituted the floor.

We found the queen, like those of "olden time," in the midst of her maidens, at work-not at the loom or embroidering frame-but in weaving the more beautiful of the mats, manufactured at the islands. That which she was herself platting, not being so fine as some of the rest, she apologized for it, by remarking, that when young, no one excelled her in the art, but now that she was old, she was incapable of rivalling others. The example of occupation and industry thus presented, in the household of the first female in the nation, was pleasing and praiseworthy; and she seemed gratified by the commendation it called from our party. Both the king and queen are very decidedly and sincerely pious; and I observed, with pleasure, a Testament and hymn book, lying within reach of each of the females at work-evidently for use and not display, as our visit was entirely unexpected to them, and not intended by ourselves, till at the door of the house.

In the evening, Tamatoa took tea with Lieutenant Stribling and myself, at the mission house; and

AND HOUSEHOLD.

39

is manifestly a sensible, dignified, and truly Christian ruler.

To-day has been the sabbath, on shore. The chapel here, like all we saw at the windward group, is large, well built, and a noble edifice, for such a people. It is not less than a hundred and twenty feet in length, and proportionately wide, calculated to seat two thousand hearers. The usual congregation varies from a thousand to twelve hundred. The number assembled to-day amounted to about eleven hundred; all well and neatly clad, and exhibiting in their whole appearance and manner of attending the service, every characteristic of civilization, respectability and piety, found in any common congregation in the United States. But for the color of the audience, indeed, it would have been difficult for any one to believe himself worshipping with those, who, till within a few years, had been lost in all the gross vice, licentiousness, and wildness of paganism. The sight was at once delightful and affecting.

The dress of the men, from the king to the most unimportant individual present, consisted of a white shirt, and black silk or colored cravat, with a fine fringed mat, several yards in length, or a piece of muslin or calico of the same size, wrapped loosely from the loins to the knee, in a manner to resemble the drawers or trowsers of the eastern nations. A straw hat worn out-doors finished the attire. The females, in general, were in white muslin slips, with large mantles of calico or of native cloth over them; and bonnets of straw. Many, however, were dressed altogether in the European fashion, except the unbe

coming deficiency in our eyes, of shoes and stockings a luxury scarce attainable by the first chieftains in the group.

The old queen was conspicuous, in a white India muslin, handsomely made, with yellow silk handkerchief, fine ruff, satin sash, and modish straw hat and trimmings—a present from the governor of New South Wales. In many accidents of feature and manners, this individual is uncommonly like one of the most distinguished of our elderly female friends.

Captain Finch, and a dozen of the officers attended the chapel in the morning. Arrangements had been made to take the band along, to play a few pieces of sacred music at intervals in the service, for the gratification of many, who would have no other opportunity of witnessing the performance of the musicians. The exercises began, as on board ship, with the Portuguese hymn. I was fearful that the novelty might occasion some confusion: but it did not in the least. There was not the slightest unbecoming excitement; not even among the children, who took their seats together, as they entered in long procession from the sabbath school.

It was the day of the communion; and after the general congregation had been dismissed, about three hundred of both sexes, and of a variety of ages, with solemnity, and seemingly deep interest, partook of the emblems of the broken body and shed blood of Him, who gave his life a ransom for many. Much as the sincerity and piety of the church members in the Islands, have been doubted by the calumniators of the mission, from all I have observed and known, and