st besides this, was an
iron hoop from a barrel, and as the thief was not discovered, it
remained undecided whether their assertion was well-grounded or not. At
all events, it appears certain that thefts do not take place oftener
than among civilized nations.

With the chastity of the Tahaitian women, the case is similar; and it
does not appear to me that the breaches of this virtue are more frequent
on the whole than in Europe. It was with the utmost caution and secrecy,
and in the most fearful anxiety lest their errors should be betrayed to
the Missionaries, that the females complied with the desires of our
sailors. An accidental occurrence proved that their terrors were not
groundless. A married man who possessed a house of his own, was induced
to barter, according to the custom of his ancestors, the favours of his
wife for some pieces of iron: he had also assisted a young man in an
intrigue with a woman whose husband was not so complaisant, by lending
his house as a place of rendezvous. Suddenly the owner and his wife
disappeared in the night, the house was found empty next morning, and we
could never learn what had become of its proprietors. Have the
Missionaries already introduced the _Oubliettes_?

Having occasion one morning to visit Wilson on business, I found his
door, which usually stood open, closed and fastened: I knocked several
times; but the whole house seemed buried in the repose of death: at
length, after loud and repeated strokes, the door was opened by Wilson,
whose cheeks bedewed with tears made me apprehensive that some great
calamity had befallen him; I was however soon satisfied that devotion
alone had caused this emotion. In an ante-room I found four or five
naked Tahaitians, of the highest rank, as Wilson told me, on their knees
reading the Bible. Having apologized for what appeared to be an
unseasonable intrusion, I was about to retire, but was invited by
Wilson, in a friendly manner, into the inner apartment, where I found
his whole family, with Messrs. Bennet and Tyrman, kneeling round a
breakfast-table, on which coffee and various kinds of meat were
arranged. Tyrman was praying aloud, the rest silently joining him. He
thanked God for the progress the Missionaries had made in spreading
Christianity. How willingly would I have concurred in his thanksgiving,
had the religion they taught been true, genuine Christianity, propitious
to human virtue and human happiness.

The prayer lasted yet a