177$' THE PACIFIC OCEAN'. %<23 



of these to his neighbours for the purpose of boring 

 holes, when their own methods failed or were 

 thought too tedious.* The men of the Society 

 Islands whom we found at Wateeoo had been driven 

 thither long after the knowledge and use of iron had 

 been introduced amongst their countrymen ; and 

 though, probably they had no specimen of it with 

 them, they would naturally and with ease communi- 

 cate at that island their knowledge of this valuable 

 material by description. From the people of Wateeoo 

 again, those of Hervey's Island might derive that 

 desire to possess some of it, of which we had proofs 

 during our short intercourse with them. 



The consideration of these facts sufficiently ex- 

 plains how the knowledge of iron has been conveyed 

 throughout this ocean to islands which never have 

 had an immediate intercourse with Europeans ; and 

 it may easily be conceived, that wherever the history 

 of it only has been reported, or a very small quantity 

 of it has been left, the greater eagerness will be 

 shown by the natives to get copious supplies of it. 

 The application of these particulars to the instance 

 now under consideration is obvious. The people of 

 Atooi and Oneeheow, without having ever been 

 visited by Europeans before us, might have received 

 it from intermediate islands, lying between them 

 and the Ladrones, which have been frequented by 

 the Spaniards almost ever since the date of Ma- 

 gellan's voyage. Or, if the distant western situation 

 of the Ladrones should render this solution less pro- 

 bable, is there not the extensive continent of Ame- 



* A similar instance of profitable revenue, drawn from the use of 

 nails by the chiefs of the Caroline Islands, is mentioned by father 

 Cantova : " Si, par hazard, un vaisseau etranger laisse dans Jeurs 

 " isles quelques vieux morceaux de fer, ils appartiennent de droit 

 f< aux Tamoles, qui en font faire des outils, le mieux qu'il est pos- 

 " sible. Ces outils sont un fond dont le Tamole tire un revenu 

 ** considerable, car il les donne a louage, et ce louage se paye 

 i* assez cher," p. 314. 



