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• ciety as foon as he fliould receive the glorious name of father.
To our great fatisfadHon he affured us, that the in-
fiances of arreoys having children were extremely rare. It
feems that they choofe their wives and miftreffes among the
proftitutes ; and from this circumftance, as well as from
their great voluptuoufnefs, they have feldom reafon to dread
the intrufion of an unfortunate infant. The anfwers of O-
Mai, whom I confulted on this fubjeffc after my return to
England, gave me {till greater pleafure, as they foftened
the tranfgreflion at leaft of one part, and entirely freed the
bulk of the nation from that {hare of guilt, which the fim-
ple acquiefcence in fuch a heinous crime might throw upon
them. He affured me, that the invariable laws of the community
of arreoy required the extinction of their offspring ;
that the pre-eminence and advantages which a man enjoyed
as arreoy were fo valuable, as to urge him on againft his
own feelings ; that the mother was never willing to con-
fent to the horrid murder, but that her hulband and other
arreoys perfuaded her to yield up the child 5 and that when
entreaties were not fufflcienr, force was fometimes employed.
But above all, he added, that this adt was always
performed in.fecret, and fo that none of the people, not even
the towtows or attendants of the houfe, were prefent; be-
caufe, if it were feen, the murderers muft be put to death.
This being the cafe, we may comfort ourfelves with the reflection,
that criminal individuals are not more numerous
in the Society Wands, than among other people ; and that m*y.
the votaries of vice have no reafon to triumph, in fuppofing
a whole nation accuftomed to commit unnatural murders,
without a fenfe of wrong *.
The arreoys were no lefs hofpitable than luxurious, and Thurf‘]a>’ *
it was not for want of invitation that we did not partake of
their refrefliments. We rambled in the country till fun-
fet, and then returned to the {hip, which Mahine, the woman,
and the other Indian paffengers had now left. The
next morning a great number of natives came to the {hip
in their canoes, among whom were many women, who
remained with the bailors. At Huahine the commerce of
this kind had been very inconliderable, and chiefly confined
to women who were only on a vifit to that ifland ; it was
therefore refumed here with the greateft eagernefs by our
crew. We palled the day on an excurlion to the northward,
where We fhot feveral wild ducks, and met with a hofpitable
reception in different cottages.
The next was a fine day, delightfully tempered by a
ftrong eafterly gale. We received the vifits of Orea and all
* Depravity is much more at home in our polifhed climate, and I muft here
mention an inftance which ftains fociety with indelible difhonour. In the me»
tropolis of England there are wretches, who publicly declare their fkill, and
offer their fervices, to procure abortion. (See an advertifement to that effect in
a public paper, No. 1322, for Wednefday, January 15, 1777.) They are fuf-
fered with impunity to make a trade of deftroying human beings in the womb,.
Such is the falutary confequence of lenity towards the murderers of innocent
babes !;