archipelago is said to be 500 leagues in length from the island
of Lazarette or Mataiwa to that of Ducie beyond, the tropic of
Capricorn, and in some parts it is 140 leagues in breadth*
All the islands of which it consists, with the exception of
Pitcairn’s and Gambier’s Islands,, are low madreporic. lands
of small extent, in which the coral reefs forming, the shore
enclose a lagoon in the interior. The islands are about sixty
in number: many of them were discovered by Captain Cook
in his first voyage. They have been partially visited by many
navigators,* and (the westernmost of them by the Tahitian
missionaries ; and a more complete survey of them has been
recently made by the officers of the exploratory voyage lately
sent out by the United States.
The people of the Paumotuan Archipelago may perhaps be
considered as a particular tribeJn the Polynesian . raoe;; - they
do not entirely resemble their nearest neighbours of th kT ah i
tian groupe. The narrator of the American voyage-says that
they are more warlike than the people of Tahiti,, and that
during the reign of Pomare I. they even attempted the cm?
quest of that islands Pomare kepfc a body-guard-of Bauffib-
tuans, which he preferred to a Tahitian one. The American
commander thought them not all of one stock. . SHe says that
of all the insular, nations they most resemble: the* Pigians;
Most of the voyagers who have visited Paumotu have thought
the people a mixed mce Or a mixture ofrthe Polynesian and
the Oceanic, Negro races. This impression has keen given by
the diversity -of colour among them. I shall cite Captain
Beechey’s account oft these islanders, as he has entered more
fully into the subject oftheir ethnography than any other writer.
Captain Beechey remarked a great difference between the
natives of the higher volcanic islands and the low coral islands
in this Archipelago. To the former belong, the Gambier
Islands, of which'he has given the following description.f
“ The largest portion of/ the natives of Gambier Islands
belong to a class which Mr. G. Forster would place among
* As Kruseristern, Duperrey, and Beechey. 1 ‘
t Captain Beechey, Voyage to the Pacific Ocean and Beering’s Straits,
vol. i. p. 184.
the first variety: of the human Species in the South Seas.
Like the generality of uncivilised people, they are good-natured
when pleased, and harmless when not irritated, obsequious
when inferior in force, and overbearing- when otherwise; and
are carried away by an insatiable' desire of appropriating to
themselves evevythrag: that attracts their fancy1—an indulgence
which brings them into m any- quarrels and I often ‘ costs them
their lives. If respect for the deceased ' be considered* a mark
Of civilisation- and humanity,'fhey-^ntidt be considered a barbarous
people-p but they possess no; claims to a -worthier
designation. In features, language, and customs they resemble
the Society, Friendly; Marqubsa, and Sandwich Islanders;
but they differ from those tribes idoneVery important point—
an exemption/--from those SteH§QalHhabits andrindpeenbiOkhi-
bitiorls which there pervade all ranks. It may be saidof the
Gambier Islanders, what few1 can assert of any people inba-
biting the same part of the globe,v that during the whole of
our interoOutse» with them we did dot witness^one indecent
a c t o r gestM^m^Thereis a great mixture of feature and colour
among thfem; and we Shouldprobably bave foUnd a idifference
(Of dialect also, could we havfe made*ourselvos masters’of-their
labgiS|^b^i I t Seems asrif SetbrabdribseS ; fromf«Temofe partss.of
the Pacific had here mety and minted .their peculiarities. In
complexion and- feature we * could- trace- resemblance even to
the widely separated tribesof New Zealand, New Caledonia,
and Malacca. Their mode of salutation i%thb same as that
which existed at-the Friendly, Society,* and» Sandwich Islands:
they resemble the inhabitants of the latter almost; exclusively
in tattooing the face, and th e 1 inhabitants * ofg the former in
staining their skin from the hips to the knees.-- * Their huts,
coral tables,' andpavementsj- are-nearlyrthe Same as at the
-Friendly Islands and Marquesas; | but they*-are; more< nearly
allied to the latterbya ciistOm; which otherwise51 believers at
present confined to them, and I \Vitb©ut a due observance of
which Krusenstern says iilUSSn Vain »to^seek a matrimonial
alliance. In the preservation of their dead, wrapping them
in an abundance of cloth , and mats, they copy the Otaheitans
and Hapaeans j though in th e ; ultimate disposal of them in
■caves and keeping them above ground they differ from all