SOCIETY ISLANDS, the name given by Captain Cook in honour of the Royal Society of London, to a cluster of islands in the South Pacific Ocean. They consist of two groups of islands, about 70 miles apart., of which the most easterly group, including Tahiti or Otabeite, is called the Georgian Islands. The followiug aro the names of the Society Islands. The names are given according to the ortho graphy introduced by the first missionaries, and used by the press now established among the people :—Meatie, Tahiti (Otaheite),Eimeo, Maiaoiti, or Charles Sander's Island, Tetusroa, Huahine, Raiatea, Tahas, Borabora, 3lauarua, Tuba, Lord Howe's Island, and Scilly Island.
The first five are those called the Georgian Islands, and the rest the Society Islands, when the two groups are distinguished. The list is exclusive of several islets which surround or are interspersed among these. The entire cluster extends from 16° 10' (Mauarua) to 17' 53' S. lat. (Nestle), and from 113° 9' 45" (Hestia) to 21' 45" W. low:. (Scilly Island).
Olaheite, or morn properly 0 Tahiti, the largest of the islands, is about 35 miles long, and more than 130 miles in circumfereuce. It consists of two peninsulas, of unequal extent, united by a low isthmus, somewhat more than 3 miles wide. The north-western and larger peninsula is called Opureoue or Tahiti-nue (Great Tahiti), and the south-eastern Tiarrabooa, or Tahiti iti (Little Tahiti). The surface is estimated to be about 430 square miles. The most remarkable of the anchorages on the coast, within the coral reef which surrounds the island, are, Mattaway Ilay, near the north-eastern extremity ; Soanoa Harbour, 4 miles westward of Mattaway ; and Papicte, towards the north-western extremity of the island, which is now moat frequented by European vessels and by American whalers. Tim interior of both peninsulas is occupied with mountain masses, which terminate in high and sharp peaks. The most elevated of these peaks, called Opureonc, rises to between 7000 and 8000 feet above the sea-level; it is nearly in the centre of the larger peninsula. Some of the summits of the smaller peninsula aro nearly as high. Except these peaks, the whole island, especially the lower hills, is covered with thick woods. The valleys are watered by flue streams, on the banks of which, as well as on the shores of the sea, are built the dwelling of the inhabitants. Lava, basalt, and pumice-stone, occur in several pieces The climate is very mild, the difference of temperature in the winter and summer months being inconsiderable. It is also very healthy, except during the rainy season. The bread-fruit trees and cocoa-palms are regularly planted, and batatas, yams, taro, and bananas are cultivated with care; the sugar-canswhich is of excellent quality, tobacco, and some other tropical plants are also cultivated. Cotton and indigo are cultivated to some extent, principally by Euro peans. Arrow-root is exported in considerable quantities. Cloth is made, as in other islands of the Pacific, of the inner bark of the bread-fruit tree, the paper mulberry-tree, and the hibiscus ; of the last also ropes are made. Oil is extracted from the cocoa-nut. Forests cover all the mountains of Tiarrabooa, and the southern declivities of those of Opureone. Some vessels have been built of the timber.
Otabeite was discovered in 1606, by the Spaniard Quiros, and called Sagittaria ; Captain Wallis, who visited the island in 1767, called it King George'e Island ; and Bougainville, who visited it in the follow ing year, named it Nouvelle Cythere. Cook, who visited it between 1769-78 several times, gave it the native name. He estimated the population at 200,000. After having been visited by several other navigators, missionaries were sent there to convert the islanders, in 1797. They found the natives friendly to strangers and devoid of
treachery; but the tribes wore continually at war with each other, and infauticide and human sacrifices were practised. The missionaries Moored without success till 1816, when the king of the island, Pomaree II., embraced Christianity, and introduced It among the natives. After his death (1821) during the minority of his son, the missionaries acquired influence, and by their advice a constitution was formed, and written laws were made (1825); but neither the consti tution nor the laws appear to have been much attended to. The introduction of Christianity hale effected the abolition of iufanticide, of human sacrifices, and other immoral practices. The government is despotic, in the hands of the sovereign, who has absolute power in respect of landed property ; each chief in his own district has a like arbitrary power over the land. The natives belong to the Malay race, and have made some progress iu All the islands are mountainous in the interior, and have a border from one to four miles wide, of rich level land, extending from the base of the high land to the sea ; and although the outline of each has some peculiarity distinguishing it from the rest, in their general appearance they resemble each other. Tetuaroa, Tubai, Lord Howe'e, and the Scilly islands however form exceptions, as they are low ooral islands, seldom rising many feet above the sea. Eiraeo is 'supposed to be *boat 25 miles In circumference; Huahine probably more than 30 mike ; and Mates is somewhat larger. The others are of smaller extent A corresponding resemblance prevails in the geological structure of the principal clusters and surrounding islands ; the com ponent substances being the same In all, although each has some distinguishing peculiarity of its own.. There seems no reason to sup pose that any of these islands are of altogether volcanic origin, like the Sandwich Islands. In the Society Islands there are basalta, whin stone dykes, and homogeneous earthy lava, rotaiuing all the convo lutions which cooling lava is known to assume; there are also kinds of hoenstono, limestone, ailex, breccia, and other substances, which under the action of fire do not appear to have altered their original form. Some are found in detached fragments, others in large masses. All the Society Islands, and many others in the Pacific, are surrounded by a belt of coral rock, from two or three to twenty yards in width, and situated at distances from a few yards to perhaps two miles from the shore. Against this barrier the long rolling waves of the wide Pacific are driven with terrific violence by the trade-winds, and, arrested by it, often rise 10, 12, or 14 feet above its surface. These reefs protect the low lands from the violence of the sea; for while beyond them the surface of the water is agitated by the slightest breeze, all within Is smooth water. There is usually a break or opening in those marine barriers, which offeraan easy passage for shipping. The soil is various. The sides of the mountains are frequently covered with a thin layer of light earth; but the anmmits of many of the inferior hills preseut a thick stratum of stiff red ochre or yellow marl. This is usually found on the lower hills that rise between the interior mountains and the shore. The natives use it as a pigment for staining or painting their doors, window-shutters, canoes, &c., and, when mixed with lime, the walls of their houses. The level tracts along the coast are the most valuable parts of the land. The soil of those tracts is a rich alluvial deposit, with a considerable mixture of vegetable mould, and is exceedingly prolific.