remaining distance of 200 feet. The body of water is not very great, but sufficient to be deeply impressive both to the eye and the ear, as it thus tumbles itself headlong, from so great a height, into a smooth and quiet basin below. I attempted a hasty sketch, in which I was induced anew each moment to persevere, by the addition of the most picturesque objects, in groupes of islanders dwellers both from above and below, who shewed themselves perched on various points of the western cliffs, till on the loftiest crag, and seemingly within a step of the first pitch of the water, their white mantles were seen streaming in the wind, while their forms were reduced, in the aerial perspective, to the size of children against the sky. While engaged with my pencil, Dr. Malone succeeded in measuring with a line, the lowest section of the fall, thus affording us the means of a more accurate estimate of the whole height. I had marked that ledge on my sketch at seventy feet, and upon measuring the line and finding it to be sixtysix, I felt a confidence in the correctness of the ge neral estimate of the whole at 280 or 300 feet. We were too much delighted with the spot to leave it in haste, but by the time I had finished the outline of a drawing, it became necessary to rejoin our boats, in order to accomplish before night the intended visit to the adjoining bay and valley of Hakahaa. DAUGHTER OF THE TAUA. 315 LETTER XXXIII. НАКАНАА, OR THE VALLEY OF THE NEUTRAL GROUND. Daughter of the Taua.-Parental Affection.-Matrimonial Alliances.-Natural Scenery.-Arrival at Hakahaa.-Collation. -Scene of Commodore Porter's Conflict with the Taipiis.Second Visit to Hakapaa and Hakahaa, — View from the Mountain.-A Second Waterfall.-Richness and Extent of the Neutral Ground. Bay of Oomi, at Nukuhiva, On returning from the waterfall yesterday to the dwelling of the prophet, we found himself, wife, and daughters in readiness for the proposed visit to the Vincennes. The second daughter, however, whom I have mentioned as evidently a fashionable of the first grade, was subjected, at the moment of starting, to a sad disappointment. She had made her appearance in full dress for the occasion, being enrobed in an immense drapery of beautifully white native cloth of the finest texture, trailing far behind upon the ground, and differing little in its appearance, at a short distance, from so much Italian crape, with a fanciful toque for the head of the same material, among the folds of which her black tresses were arranged with much taste. Conscious of superior beauty and elegance, and satisfied with the additional effect of an hour's attendance at the toilette, she was just moving off in fine spirits, when unhap 316 PARENTAL AFFECTION. pily an infant some months old began crying, and the grandmother interdicted her leaving it, an injunction which, either from parental or filial duty, she chose to obey; though I doubt not greatly to her dissatisfaction. At the Sandwich Islands, previous to the influence of Christianity which has now obtained, the result in such a case would probably have been very different, and the babe would have cried in vain. From every inquiry I have been able to make, I am happy to say there is good reason to believe that the abhorrent crime of child murder, so prevalent among the Hawaiians and other Polynesians, is a crime of heathenism hitherto spared the Nukuhivans and their fellow-islanders of the Washington and Marquesan groupes. As a people, so far as we can judge, they appear as fond of their children and give the same evidences of attachment and care in their treatment of them as the inhabitants of a civilized country; a fact worthy of being placed in happy contrast with the horrors of infanticide, necessarily brought to light in a portraiture of the pagan state of the Georgian, Society, and Sandwich Islanders. All the domestic relations, indeed, appear to be under more propitious auspices here than originally at either of those clusters. The marriage tie, though existing almost exclusively in the baneful form of a singular polygamy, that of a plurality of husbands, instead of a plurality of wives, still seems more distinct, more binding, and more enduring here than at the Society and Sandwich Islands. I have not been able to learn that any particular ceremony MATRIMONIAL ALLIANCES. 317 attends the marriage engagement, except an interchange of presents between the intended husband and the father of the bride and the celebration of a feast by the common relatives, with accompanying amusements of dancing and singing. We have yet met with no instance, in any rank of society, of a male with two wives, but are informed that for one woman to have two husbands is a universal habit. Some favourite in the father's household or retinue at an early period becomes the husband of the daughter, who still remains under the paternal roof till contracted in marriage to a second individual, on which, she removes with her first husband to his habitation, and both herself and original companion are supported by him. Alliances most unequal in point of age are often entered into by families of rank from motives of policy or ambition, in which an infant, male or female, is contracted in marriage to an individual of the opposite sex already arrived at years of maturity or to a middle or advanced period of life. Contracts of this kind very frequently occur at the formation of a peace between two hostile parties or tribes; and the persons and families thus allied are always spared violence and death in any future war that may take place, or the devastations that may follow a successful inroad of either tribe upon the territories of the other. Instances of strong conjugal affection are reported of them; and cases are known, in which the infidelity and unkindness of a husband or wife have so deeply affected the happiness of the companion 318 NATURAL SCENERY. as to lead to the commission of suicide, by swallowing a poisonous berry growing in the mountains, or by hanging. The row round the promontory overhanging this little glen, through the middle bay of the neutral ground at Hakahaa, is about three miles, and rich in a variety and beauty of prospect. The central inlet is about two miles in depth and one in width. On first doubling the point, as we now entered it from Hakapaa, the ridges of hills, both on the right and left, are coated only in thick set grass; but about midway towards the beach on which we were to land, "A woodland scene On either side, drew its slope line of green, This was beautifully true of the western acclivity. A smooth and verdant shore rose gradually a few rods above a bright base of pebbles at the beach, to a wide and regularly defined terrace, extending along the hill to the mouth of the valley a mile inland, and so wooded as to appear like a tastefully planted avenue leading to an abode of affluence and rank. It reminded me of some of the drives I have taken in an English park; but not a nobleman in the realm can boast an ornament in his grounds, in which there is united such luxuriance, gracefulness, and variety of foliage, as were here presented at a single glance to the eye. Across the bay, immediately opposite, a feature in the landscape equally striking, though less picturesque, attracted our notice, in an extensive plantation of bread-fruit, stud |