The New Hampshire Gazette And Historical Chronicle

LONDON, Sept. 10.

Extract of a Letter from a young Gentleman on board his Majesty's Sloop Endeavour, (lately returned from a Voyage round the World) giving some Account of the Natives of Otahitee or George's-Island.

"THEY acknowledge one Supreme Being, whom they believe to be too great to attend to the prayers of man; they therefore invoke him through mediators who they believe are, in general, their great men departed.--They do not kneel to an image, they only offer up a sacrifice of every thing they mean to partake of, saying, "sure the Deity has a right to an offering of what he gave." Their burials are more singular than any other custom: when a man dies, he is placed upon a bier, and a shed is erected over him, made of leaves of trees; this mausoleum is placed very often near their own houses, & tho' the body is in a disagreeable putrid state, they never seem to take any notice of the offensiveness; the corpse remains in that condition till the flesh is entirely consumed, and then the skeleton is interred in the burying-ground, which is done round with stones in the form of our country church yards. The origin of man they believe to be from a chosen pair made by the great God, and that we are all descendants of them, that the Deity formed the earth of continents and isles, and that the Europeans who visit them are of the great land; but when that he had formed the sea, he towed the great earth by a string upon it, which going so quick, made many parts to break off. and those composed islands."

Their women are of a copper colour well made, and well featured. with jet-black hair. which they always wear braided up with false hair.-- They wear a kind of cloth over their bodies, made from the cloth tree, which is very thin, and not strong; but when they want it for warmth, they make many folds of it. and stick it together by gums; they have another kind, which they call mourning cloth. stained with yellow on one side. and brown on the other. They marry at nine & ten, they bear many children, and at twenty two are old and ugly. A virgin is to be purchased here with the unanimous consent of the parents, for three nails and a knife: I own I was a buyer of such commodities and after some time married one of my nut brown sultanas, & then became so habituated to their manners and a hut, that I even left my lady and the island with reluctance. They have but one fashion amongst them, which is of a singular outré nature, and that is of painting their posteriors of a jet black, which no woman is suffered to neglect. They are not very decent in their amours, having little regard to either place or person: This is not general amongst them though it is often done and seen. Upon occasions of festivity the women dance in the most indecent manner, performing a thousand obscene gesticulations, like the Indian dancing girls. The only instrument of musick to divert them at these times, are large drums and flutes made of reeds, in the form of our common flute, which is played upon by the wind of the nose, instead of the mouth."