mire this fertile and beautiful country, but to
visit some of my old friends. I was very much astonished and shocked at
seeing several very beautiful young women, whom I left only a few months
back in perfect health and strength, now reduced to mere "living
skeletons," and also to hear of the death of others by consumption. This
disease seems to be the scourge of the young; and when they are once
seized with its symptoms, they are very speedily brought to the grave.
The natives say, "It is Atua, the Great Spirit, coming into them, and
eating up their inside; for the patient can feel those parts gradually go
away, and then they become weaker and weaker till no more is left; after
which the Spirit sends them to the happy island." They never attempt any
means of curing or of alleviating the pains caused by this cruel
complaint; and all those under its influence are tabooed. I procured from
the brig all my remaining stores of tapioca, sago, arrowroot, and sugar,
and distributed them in the best way I could amongst my sick friends.
They were anxious for wine; but that portion of my sea-stock, as well as
spirits, had been long since expended.

It seems unaccountable that the natives of an atmosphere so dry as this
is--a country in which there are no marshy bogs, and where, though there
is an abundance of water, it is generally seen in clear and sparkling
rills rushing down from the mountains into the rivers--should be subject
to so fatal a disease as galloping consumption. The only cause to which I
can attribute such an affliction is, their indifference to lying out all
night exposed to every change of weather--to cold and rain--which, in
young and tender constitutions, must produce the most pernicious
consequences. If some few are rendered hardy and robust by this process,
many, no doubt, are killed by it. I endeavoured to impress on the minds
of all my female friends the great danger of thus exposing themselves to
cold; but they only laughed at my precautions, and said, "If Atua wished
it, so it must be; they could not strive with the Great Spirit."

I have heard so much said about the great impropriety of the white
settlers admitting the native females into their society, so much of the
scandalous conduct of captains of ships suffering their men to have
sweethearts during their stay in port, and so much urged in justification
of the indignation shown by the missionaries when this subject is touched
on by them, that I feel