28 " United States Exploring Expedition. 



road speed over the Pacific, and examine into their various 

 productions, and the relative intelligence of the savages. The 

 degradation of the New Hollander stands out in bold relief in 

 contrast with the more advanced, though no less barbarous, 

 Feejee. With the former, a war-club, and one or two other 

 implements of war, including a small elliptical shield, is their 

 all, — there are no dresses, no household utensils, for they use 

 neither, and live without houses. Two cases* are filled with 

 articles of Feejee manufacture, and among them are war-clubs 

 of various kinds, spears, bows and arrows, native cloth of nu- 

 merous patterns, dresses of the men and women, with bracelets 

 and necklaces of shells and human teeth, wigs of Feejee hair, 

 shewing the mode of dressing the head, native combs, paint 

 for painting the face, their pillows (a stick like a broom -handle 

 supported on short legs at each end), musical instruments, 

 models of canoes, — indeed, all the arts and manufactures of 

 the island, are well represented ; and were the chief Veindovi 

 living, a visit to the Hall with Veindovi at hand, would be 

 little less interesting than visiting the islands themselves. 

 One advantage at least — no danger would be apprehended from 

 a ferocious race of cannibals, that are ready to attack all in- 

 truders into those seas. Several Feejee skulls are to be found 

 in a separate case, containing the skulls collected by the ex- 

 pedition ; among them, one bears the marks of the fire in a 

 large burnt spot on the top of the head. Early one morning, 

 soon after the Peacock came to anchor off a small Feejee 

 town, she was boarded by a large number of natives, who 

 came ofi^ with their half-eaten bones in their hands, the re- 

 mains of the past night's cannibal feast. They continued eat- 

 ing the human flesh on deck, as unconsciously as we would eat 

 an apple. One had the skull just referred to in his hand, and 

 as he consented to part with it for some trifle, he gouged out 

 the remaining eye, and went on eating off^ its muscles. This 

 fact, so revolting, is here stated on account of the prevalent 

 unwillingness to admit that cannibalism actually exists among 

 the savages. This was seen both by men and officers, and 

 from the facts collected, there can be no doubt of their enter- 



* The glass-cases in the hall measure twelve feet by four, and are eight feet 

 high. 



