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[Page 6]
friendly manner. In their general intercourse they speak the English Language commonly, & even the old Otaheitan women have pickd up a good deal of that language: the young people speak it with a most pleasing accent, & their voices are extremely harmonious. The habitations are extremely neat, infinitely superior to what we saw at the Marquesas Islands. The little Village at Pitcairn forms a pretty square, John Adams occupies the houses at the upper end, & Thursday October Christian opposite to him; the Centre is a fine Lawn where the Poultry wander, but it is fenced in,so as to prevent the intrusion of Hogs &c.
It was easily to be perceivd that in this establishment, the labour & ingenuity of European hands had been exerted, we never witnessed any regular plan of laying out the grounds in the other Islands we visited, or forming Plantations. In their houses they have also a good deal of decent furniture, consisting of Beds & Bedsteads & covering ; they have also Tables and large Chests; their Clothing & Linnen is made from the Bark of a certain Tree, & this is the employment of he elderly part of the Women: the Bark is first soaked, then beat with square pieces of wood of the breadth of ones hand, hollowed out into grooves; with this it is beat till it is brought to the breadth required. The younger part of the females are obligd to attend with old Adams & their Brothers to the Culture of the Land, & it is on this account doubtless, that this old director of the work, does not countenance too early marriages, for as he very properly observed, when once Mothers, they are not so capable of hard labour, but obligd to attend to the Children, & from all appearance they would be very prolific, indeed I do not see how it could be otherwise, considering the regularily of their lives, their Simple tho excellent way of living, their Meals consisting chiefly of a vegetable died with now & then excellent Pork & occasionally good Fish. The Women or rather the young girls altho they have only the examples of their Mothers to follow in their dress (who are Otaheitan Women) are much more modestly clad than any of the females we saw at the Marquesas; they have invariably a piece of Linnen reaching from the Waist to the knees, & generally a Mantle or something of that nature thrown loosely over the Shoulders & hanging as low as the Ancles; this however is frequently thrown aside & often entirely off, so that it is intended to shelter them more from the heat of the Sun in any severity of Weather than for the