NOVEMBER 19, 1835.
At daylight my friends, after their morning prayer, prepared an
excellent breakfast in the same manner as in the evening. They
themselves certainly partook of it largely; indeed I never saw any
men eat near so much. I suppose such enormously capacious stomachs
must be the effect of a large part of their diet consisting of
fruit and vegetables which contain, in a given bulk, a
comparatively small portion of nutriment. Unwittingly, I was the
means of my companions breaking, as I afterwards learned, one of
their own laws and resolutions: I took with me a flask of spirits,
which they could not refuse to partake of; but as often as they
drank a little, they put their fingers before their mouths, and
uttered the word "Missionary." About two years ago, although the
use of the ava was prevented, drunkenness from the introduction of
spirits became very prevalent. The missionaries prevailed on a few
good men who saw that their country was rapidly going to ruin, to
join with them in a Temperance Society. From good sense or shame,
all the chiefs and the queen were at last persuaded to join.
Immediately a law was passed that no spirits should be allowed to
be introduced into the island, and that he who sold and he who
bought the forbidden article should be punished by a fine.
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