I asked him several more questions, and all his answers seemed to tend
to this one point, that men for certain crimes were condemned to be
sacrificed to the gods, provided they had not wherewithal to redeem
themselves.
This, I think, implies, that on some occasions, human
sacrifices are considered as necessary, particularly when they take such
men as have, by the laws of their country, forfeited their lives, and have
nothing to redeem them; and such will generally be found among the lower
class of people.
The man of whom I made these enquiries, as well as some others, took some
pains to explain the whole of this custom to us; but we were not masters
enough of their language to understand them. I have since learnt from Omai,
that they offer human sacrifices to the Supreme Being. According to his
account, what men shall be so sacrificed, depends on the caprice of the
high priest, who, when they are assembled on any solemn occasion, retires
alone into the house of God, and stays there some time. When he comes out,
he informs them, that he has seen and conversed with their great God (the
high priest alone having that privilege), and that he has asked for a human
sacrifice, and tells them that he has desired such a person, naming a man
present, whom, most probably, the priest has an antipathy against. He is
immediately killed, and so falls a victim to the priest's resentment, who,
no doubt (if necessary), has address enough to persuade the people that he
was a bad man. If I except their funeral ceremonies, all the knowledge that
has been obtained of their religion, has been from information: And as
their language is but imperfectly understood, even by those who pretend to
the greatest knowledge of it, very little on this head is yet known with
certainty.[3]
The liquor which they make from the plant called Ava ava, is
expressed from the root, and not from the leaves, as mentioned in the
narrative of my former voyage. The manner of preparing this liquor is as
simple as it is disgusting to an European. It is thus: Several people take
some of the root, and chew it till it is soft and pulpy, then they spit it
out into a platter or other vessel, every one into the same; when a
sufficient quantity is chewed, more or less water is put to it, according
as it is to be strong or weak; the juice, thus diluted, is strained through
some fibrous stuff like fine shavings; after which it is fit for drinking,
and this is always done immediately. It has a pepperish taste, drinks flat,
and rather insipid. But, though it is intoxicating I only saw one instance
where it had that effect, as they generally drink it with great moderation,
and but little at a time. Sometimes they chew this root in their mouths,
as Europeans do tobacco, and swallow their spittle; and sometimes I have
seen them eat it wholly.
At Ulietea they cultivate great quantities of this plant. At Otaheite but
very little. I believe there are but few islands in this sea, that do not
produce more or less of it; and the natives apply it to the same use, as
appears by Le Mair's account of Horn Island, in which he speaks of the
natives making a liquor from a plant in the same manner as above mentioned.
Great injustice has been done the women of Otaheite, and the Society isles,
by those who have represented them, without exception, as ready to grant
the last favour to any man who will come up to their price. But this is by
no means the case; the favours of married women, and also the unmarried of
the better sort, are as difficult to be obtained here, as in any other
country whatever. Neither can the charge be understood indiscriminately of
the unmarried of the lower class, for many of these admit of no such
familiarities. That there are prostitutes here, as well as in other
countries, is very true, perhaps more in proportion, and such were those
who came on board the ships to our people, and frequented the post we had
on shore. By seeing these mix indiscriminately with those of a different
turn, even of the first rank, one is at first inclined to think that they
are all disposed the same way, and that the only difference is in the
price. But the truth is, the woman who becomes a prostitute does not seem,
in their opinion, to have committed a crime of so deep a dye as to exclude
her from the esteem and society of the community in general. On the whole,
a stranger who visits England might, with equal justice, draw the
characters of the women there, from those which he might meet with on board
the ships in one of the naval ports, or in the purlieus of Covent-Garden
and Drury-Lane. I must however allow, that they are all completely versed
in the art of coquetry, and that very few of them fix any bounds to their
conversation. It is therefore no wonder that they have obtained the
character of libertines.
To what hath been said of the geography of these isles, in the narrative of
my former voyage, I shall now only add, that we found the latitude of
Oaiti-piha Bay, in Otaheite, to be 17 deg. 43' 26" south, and the longitude 0 deg.
21' 25" 1/2 east from Point Venus; or 149 deg. 13' 24" west from Greenwich. The
difference both of latitude and longitude, between Point Venus and Oaiti-
piha, is greater than I supposed it to be, when I made the circuit of the
island in 1769, by two miles, and 4-3/4 miles respectively. It is therefore
highly probable, that the whole island is of a greater extent than I, at
that time, estimated it to be.
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