The principal buildings are—­the governor’s house, the French magazines, the military bakehouse, the barracks, and the queen’s house, which however is not quite completed.  Besides these, a number of small wooden houses were in the course of erection, the want of them being greatly felt; at the time of my visit even officers of high rank were obliged to be contented with the most wretched huts.

I went from hut to hut in the hopes of being able to obtain some small room or other; but in vain, all were already occupied.  I was at last obliged to be satisfied with a small piece of ground, which I found at a carpenter’s, whose room was already inhabited by four different individuals.  I was shown a place behind the door, exactly six feet long and four broad.  There was no flooring but the earth itself; the walls were composed of wicker work; a bed was quite out of the question, and yet for this accommodation I was obliged to pay one florin and thirty kreutzers a-week (about 7s.)

The residence or hut of an Indian consists simply of a roof of palm-trees, supported on a number of poles, with sometimes the addition of walls formed of wicker-work.  Each hut contains only one room, from twenty to fifty feet long, and from ten to thirty feet broad, and is frequently occupied by several families at the same time.  The furniture is composed of finely woven straw mats, a few coverlids, and two or three wooden chests and stools; the last, however, are reckoned articles of luxury.  Cooking utensils are not wanted, as the cookery of the Indians does not include soups or sauces, their provisions being simply roasted between hot stones.  All they require is a knife, and a cocoa shell for water.

Before their huts, or on the shore, lie their piroques, formed of the trunks of trees hollowed out, and so narrow, small, and shallow, that they would constantly be overturning, if there were not on one side five or six sticks, each about a foot long, fastened by a cross-bar to preserve the equilibrium.  In spite of this, however, one of these boats is very easily upset, unless a person steps in very cautiously.  When, on one occasion, I proceeded in a piroque to the ship, the good-hearted captain was horror-struck, and, in his concern for my safety, even reprimanded me severely, and besought me not to repeat the experiment a second time.

The costume of the Indians has been, since the first settlement of the missionaries (about fifty years ago), tolerably becoming, especially in the neighbourhood of Papeiti.  Both men and women wear round their loins a kind of apron, made of coloured stuff, and called a pareo; the women let it fall as low down as their ancles; the men not farther than the calf of the leg.  The latter have a short coloured shirt underneath it, and again beneath that, large flowing trousers.  The women wear a long full blouse.  Both sexes wear flowers in their ears, which have such large holes bored in them that the stalk can very easily be drawn through.  The women, both old and young, adorn themselves with garlands of leaves and flowers, which they make in the most artistic and elegant manner.  I have often seen men, too, weaving the same kind of ornament.