Page:Narrative of a Voyage around the World - 1843.djvu/112

 62 The native population has decreased in a degree exceeding ordinary calculation, whilst that of the foreign residents has increased in the same proportion. In 1827, with the exception of the Consul's family and the missionary ladies, not a foreign female could be found. At a ball given during our visit no less than twenty couple stood up. Some ladies then were absent from illness, and those of the missionary families could not be expected to attend such sinful pastime.

No apparent change has taken place in the cultivation of the land ; they are still in the same state of idleness as to their own affairs. They cannot cultivate their land, because their labour is demanded for the church, the missionaries having obtained the necessary edict which compels the natives to labour on the reefs, to procure blocks of stone for the purpose of building a new church. The first duty, of obtaining subsistence for their families, was deemed but a secondary consideration. If they presumed to do so on Sunday their punishment was double labour the ensuing week. Even the servants of the foreign residents were interfered with, and arbitrarily marched off.

This state of things could not exist long; great discontent was manifested by all parties, and it probably would have proceeded to some decisive act, had it not been "considered advisable to suspend operations for one year."

At Tahiti the natives are compelled to frequent