the introduction of a sugar
manufactory, and promised himself great profit from it.

By order of the Missionaries, the flute, which once awakened innocent
pleasure, is heard no more. No music but that of the psalms is suffered
in Tahaiti: dancing, mock-fights, and dramatic representations are no
longer permitted. Every pleasure is punished as a sin, among a people
whom Nature destined to the most cheerful enjoyment. One of our friends
having begun to sing for joy over a present he had received, was
immediately asked by his comrades, with great terror, what he thought
would be the consequence, should the Missionaries hear of it.

It is remarkable that the degenerate Tahaitians are no longer even in
person such as they are described by the early travellers. Their
religion appears to have had an effect inimical to their beauty. The
large-grown Yeris, solely employed in praying, eating, and sleeping, are
all, men and women, excessively fat even in early youth. The smaller
common people, constrained to some degree of industry, look plump and
well fed, but not so swollen as their superiors, and more fine forms
are therefore to be seen among them than among the Yeris: the latter
also frequently suffer under a most disfiguring disease caused by want
of exercise and excess of nourishment: the legs swell to such a degree
from the knees downward, that the form of the calf and foot is entirely
lost, and the thick cylinders which usurp the place of legs, and from
under which the toes only project, resemble nothing but the legs of
elephants; thence the name of elephantism has been bestowed on the
complaint by Europeans. It does not appear to cause much pain.

The men of both classes shave the beard, and both sexes cut their hair
so close, that the skin can be seen under it; a fashion ugly enough for
any face, but especially so with their brown complexions, as it gives
them an ape-like appearance. As, however, a compliance with this custom,
is a mark of Christianity, and the heathen fugitives to the mountains
have retained their long hair, even the young females are proud of thus
disfiguring themselves.

All vanity is sin, and all care of the person is vanity. Hence the fat
Yeri beauties no longer shelter their skins from the burning rays of
the sun, and are become as brown as the rest. All the graces have
departed from them; their fascinating smiles have vanished; and the
rancid cocoa-oil with which they smear themselves may be s