LETTER FKOM MB. MACGILLIVRAY. ' 361 



applied to D. obtusa in the description. The only way in which I can 

 account for the discrepancy is, that Moore's specimens had been wrongly 

 labelled for locality. Sir E. Home's certainly were, when they were 

 stated to be from the Isle of Pines. The largest Aneiteum Dammara 

 which I saw, measured 23^ feet in circumference 5 feet from the ground. 

 Unlike the B. Australis of New Zealand, it is not considered suited for 

 large spars, but cuts np into excellent planks. I could not get any 

 ripe cones ; and although abundance of full-sized green ones were hung 

 up on board, in hopes of some reaching Sydney in a state fit for germi- 

 nation, the experiment proved a failure. So was it also with Eutassa 

 Cookii. The only other Aneiteum plant I shall mention here is a San- 

 talim, once abundant, but now almost extinct, so much so that I saw 

 only one individual, that which furnished me with specimens. It had 

 probably escaped the axe of the native on account of its small size, 

 being only a sapling as thick as the wrist, and commercially valueless. 

 I regret not having done more for the botany of Aneiteum, but two- 

 thirds of my entire time were taken up with the vocabularies and gram- 

 mar, combined with ethnology,— the last important to be secured before 

 Christianity will have brought about the gredt change in morals and 

 customs which it has already partially accomplished, thanks to the two 

 missionaries of Aneiteum. Even in the central pagan district of Itaho, 

 any European with ordinary prudence and courage is now perfectly 

 safe while passing through from one side of the island to the other, 

 and its magnificent valleys and wooded ravines may be explored by any 

 wandering naturalist. Two-thirds of the population of 2500 belon^ 

 to the Christian party, wear clothing of some description or other, and 

 have ceased to practise war among themselves, infanticide, and the 

 once customnry strangling of widows. The nature of my researches 

 led me to have much intercourse with the natives, and I satisfied my- 

 self that the stories regarding the missionaries (originating from sandal- 

 wood traders and others) grossly maligned two good men devoted to 

 the service of their Divine Master. 



On November 2 we reached the neighbouring island of Futuna or 

 Erronan, and, there being no anchorage, stood off and on for two days, 

 during which I was as much on shore as possible, but did not collect 

 any plants. Tlie vegetation of Futuna exactly corresponds to that of 

 Aneiteum, wfar as it goes, but without the extent and diversity of the 

 latter island. This is in a great measure owing to the want of mois^ 



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