ence of these high
personages attract much more notice when they had climbed the deck;
their subjects continued to drive their bargains without interruption,
and scarcely vouchsafed the slightest salutation. Very different would
have been their conduct on the arrival of a Missionary. The Queen was
probably hurt by this neglect, for she went directly into my cabin,
followed by her family, and remained there till she quitted the ship.
The construction of the vessel was not likely to excite her curiosity,
as she was herself the owner of a well-built English merchant ship.

The goods in the cabin, however, delighted the ladies, who admired and
wanted every thing; nor was it easy to convince them, that each article
they coveted was indispensable to our convenience.

The officers exerted themselves to maintain the good-humour of their
guests by trifling presents, and, amongst other things, gave them a
piece of sham gold-lace, several yards in length, which was received
with extraordinary eagerness. The Royal sisters divided it between them,
and added it to the black crape trimming of their hats; and so great was
the admiration excited by this novel article of finery, that the rage
for gold-lace became an absolute fever among the more distinguished
Tahaitian ladies. Vain now proved the severe lessons of the
Missionaries, forbidding all adornment of the person. There was no end
to petitions for lace, and the more our store of it diminished, the more
highly did they value the smallest piece they could obtain. The
tormented husbands came every day to the ship, willingly offering a fine
fat pig and eight fowls for half an ell of the false lace, to satisfy
the longings of their wives. They beset me incessantly in my dwelling
on shore, for this new and invaluable appendage of luxury; and were
astonished beyond measure, that I, the commander, should possess none of
it. The ladies who finally were unsuccessful in procuring the means of
imitating a fashion thus accidentally introduced by the Royal sisters,
_tout comme chez-nous_, actually fell ill and gave themselves up to the
boundless lamentations of despair.

While the Royal Family remained below in the cabin, their attendants
were engaged on deck in purchasing from our sailors all sorts of old
clothes for a hundred times their value, in Spanish piastres. The
Tahaitians have yet no notion of the value of money, which they get from
the ships that touch at the island, and by their t