tainment of which it is difficult to account.

"In each of these first parts the songs, attitudes and actions appeared
to me of greater variety than I had before noticed amongst the people
of the great South Sea nation on any former occasion. The whole, though
I am unequal to its description, was supported with a wonderful degree
of spirit and vivacity; so much indeed that some of their exertions
were made with such a degree of agitating violence as seemed to carry
the performers beyond what their strength was able to sustain; and had
the performance finished with the third act, we should have retired
from their theatre with a much higher idea of the moral tendency of
their drama, than was conveyed by the offensive, libidinous scene,
exhibited by the ladies in the concluding part. The language of the
song, no doubt, corresponded with the obscenity of their actions;
which were carried to a degree of extravagance that were calculated
to produce nothing but disgust, even to the most licentious."

From "A Voyage of Discovery," by Captain George Vancouver:

_The Reconciliation by Strategy of a King With One of His Queens._

"Tahowmotoo was amongst the most constant of our guests; but his
daughter, the disgraced queen, seldom visited our side of the bay. I
was not, however, ignorant of her anxious desire for a reconciliation
with Tamaahmaah; nor was the same wish to be misunderstood in the
conduct and behavior of the king, in whose good opinion and confidence
I had now acquired such a predominancy that I became acquainted with
his most secret inclinations and apprehensions.

"His unshaken attachment and unaltered affection for Tahowmannoo was
confessed with a sort of internal self conviction of her innocence. He
acknowledged with great candor that his own conduct had not been
exactly such as warranted his having insisted upon a separation from
his queen; that although it could not authorize, it in some measure
pleaded in excuse for her infidelity; and for his own, he alleged,
that his high rank and supreme authority was a sort of license for
such indulgences.

"An accommodation which I considered to be mutually wished by both
parties was urged in the strongest terms by the queen's relations. To
effect this desirable purpose, my interference was frequently solicited
by them; and as it concurred with my own inclination, I resolved on
embracing the first favorable opportunity to use my best endeavors for
bringing a reconci