Voyage of H.M.S. 'Pandora' : $b despatched to arrest the mutineers of the 'Bounty' in the South Seas, 1790-91Edwards, Edward
History
Voyage of H.M.S. 'Pandora' : $b despatched to arrest the mutineers of the 'Bounty' in the South Seas, 1790-91
Edwards, Edward
Bounty (Ship); Pandora (Frigate); Voyages around the world -- Early works to 1800
As soon as they were on board, the Captain debarassoit the ladies, by
rolling their linen round his middle; an indispensable ceremony here in
receiving a present of cloth: and Medua, wife to Oripai, the king's
brother, took a great liking to the Captain's laced coat, which he
immediately put on her with much gallantry; and that beautiful princess
seemed much elated with her new finery. I cannot ommit a circumstance of
this lady's attachment to dress. There was a custom which had prevailed
for a long time, to present the god with all red feathers that could be
procured; but thinking she would become red feathers full as well as his
godship, immediately employed all her domestics making them up into fly
flaps, and other personal ornaments, to prevent the altar making a
monopoly of all the good things, in this, as well as in other countries.
A grand Haeva was next day ordered for our entertainment ashore, on Point
Venus, and on our landing we were preceded by a band of music, and led to
where the king and his levee were in waiting to receive us. The course
was soon cleared by the chiefs, and the entertainment began by two men,
who vied with each other in filthy lascivious attitudes, and frightful
distortions of their mouths. These having performed their part, two
ladies, pretty fancifully dressed, as described in Captain Cook's
Voyages, were introduced after a little ceremony. Something resembling a
turkey-cock's tail, and stuck on their rumps in a fan kind of fashion,
about five feet in diameter, had a very good effect while the ladies kept
their faces to us; but when in a bending attitude, they presented their
rumps, to shew the wonderful agility of their loins; the effect is better
conceived than described. After half an hour's hard exercise, the dear
creatures had remuee themselves into a perfect fureur, and the piece
concluded by the ladies exposing that which is better felt than seen;
and, in that state of nature, walked from the bottom of the theatre to
the top where we were sitting on the grass, till they approached just by
us, and then we complimented them in bowing, with all the honours of war.
These accomplishments are so much prized amongst them that girls come
from the interior parts of the country to the court residence, for
improvement in the Haeva, just as country gentlemen send their daughters
to London boarding-schools.
This may well be called the Cytheria of the southern hemisphere, not only
from the beauty and elegance of the women, but their being so deeply
versed in, and so passionately fond of the Eleusinian mysteries; and what
poetic fiction has painted of Eden, or Arcadia, is here realized, where
the earth without tillage produces both food and cloathing, the trees
loaded with the richest of fruit, the carpet of nature spread with the
most odoriferous flowers, and the fair ones ever willing to fill your
arms with love.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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