m to
come down. Upon which I determined to remain for the night, in order to
visit the village, in hopes of getting some more information, and also to
make Pabok a present, which he well deserved for his good services.

The gig was accordingly sent inshore to sound, and soon made the signal
of having found an anchorage, upon which we stood in, greatly to the
delight of the natives, who, as they were not armed, were allowed to come
on board, where they behaved very well. Some went aloft with great
activity to assist in furling sails, and two came aft to the wheel, the
use of which they seemed to understand perfectly.

At one o'clock we anchored in 11 fathoms sand and coral, three quarters
of a mile from the shore; and as soon as the ship was secured, a party of
us landed, accompanied by the old chief, and followed by most of the
natives in their canoes.

APPEARANCE OF THE SHORES.

On landing, the contrast to the Australian shores we had so recently
sailed from, was very striking. We left a land covered with the
monotonous interminable forest of the eucalyptus or gumtree, which, from
the peculiar structure of its leaf, affords but little shelter from the
tropical sun. Shores fringed with impenetrable mangroves; a soil
producing scarcely any indigenous vegetable, either in the shape of root
or fruit fit for food. The natives black, naked, lowest in the scale of
civilized life; their dwellings, if such they can be called, formed by
spreading the bark rudely torn from the tree, over a few twigs placed in
the ground, under which they creep for shelter; dependent almost entirely
on the success of the chase for their daily food, not having arrived at
the first and simplest form of cultivation, and in like manner destitute
of all trace of religion, except the faint symptom of belief in an evil
spirit.

We landed on a beach, along which a luxuriant grove of coconut trees
extended for more than a mile, under the shade of which were sheds neatly
constructed of bamboo and thatched with palm leaves, for the reception of
their canoes. To our right a hill rose to a height of about 400 feet,
covered with brilliant and varied vegetation so luxuriant as entirely to
conceal the village built on its summit. The natives who thronged the
beach were of a light tawny colour, mostly fine, athletic men, with an
intelligent expression of countenance.

DRESS OF THE NATIVES.

Their dress consisted of a cloth round the waist reaching to the k