marsupial order; that is, having a pouch in which it carries its young,
as does the kangaroo. There are several other marsupial animals in
these islands, such as are found also in Australia and New Guinea, where
alone they exist, some as small as mice. Though no mice exist in those
regions, these little animals are about as mischievous--entering into
houses, and eating their way through all sorts of materials, just in the
manner that mice do. I cannot attempt to describe the numerous other
birds which we shot or caught. Among them were many of brilliant
plumage--pigeons, little parroquets, and numerous other small birds,
similar to those found in Australia and New Guinea.

We spent three or four days in a native house, at which, at a rental of
a few yards of cloth, some tobacco, and one or two other articles, we
engaged rooms. It was raised on a platform seven feet high on posts;
the walls were about four feet more, with a high pitched roof. The
floor was composed of split bamboo, and a part of the sloping roof could
be lifted and propped up, so as to admit light and air. Our
apartments--for I have dignified them by that name--were divided from
the rest of the house by a thatched partition. At one end of it was a
cooking-place, with a clay floor, and shells for crockery. Several
families occupied the other parts of the house, which was very
extensive. There were generally half-a-dozen or more visitors in
addition to the families. They led very easy idle lives, only working
when it was absolutely necessary for the sake of obtaining food; and
from morning till night the people were laughing, shouting, and talking
without cessation. Such screams of laughter, such loud shouts--the
women and children vying with the men--I have never elsewhere heard.
They seemed to live very well, as the men and boys are capital archers,
and never went out without their bows and arrows. With these they shot
all sorts of birds, and sometimes kangaroos and pigs. Besides this,
they had a variety of vegetables, although they grew no rice nor the
cocoa-nut tree. They had plantains, yams, and, above all, the
sugar-cane. They were continually eating it. It grows on the black
vegetable soil to a great height and thickness. At all times of the day
we found the people eating it, generally four or five together, each one
with a yard of cane in one hand, and a knife in the other, and a basket
between their legs. There they sat paring aw