1 20 Voyage of the Novara. 



reckoning of time is as limited as their capacity for recollect- 

 ing by gone occurrences. The presence of Christian mission- 

 aries at various periods, as also the visit of the Danish corvette 

 Galatea in 1847, had already almost entirely disappeared 

 from tlieir memory. Only among a very few of their num- 

 bers have some of the names clung to the recollection, such 

 as Galatea^ and Steene Bilk (which they pronounced Piller). 



We could not find anything that bore the least resemblance 

 to any settled form of government, to any distribution upon 

 fixed principles of the possessions of the general community, 

 to any recognition of individual right, to any tribunal for 

 settling quarrels, &c. &c. They recognize the relations of 

 family and of property ; on the other hand, the power of the 

 captain, one of whom the greater number of villages has each 

 for itself, and whom they call Mah or Umiaha (old), extends 

 no further than giving him the right to be the first to trade 

 with such foreign ships as make their appearance, and to in- 

 augurate the barter-system. Indeed this very institution of 

 captainship, although much liked by the natives, does not at 

 all seem as though it were part of their own system, but to 

 date from the period when English merchant vessels began to 

 visit these islands regularly. 



As to the social life of the natives, their family relations, 

 and so forth, we could get such scanty and uncertain data to 

 go upon, what with the cursory visits we paid to the various 

 islands, and considering the women and children had every- 

 where fled, while the men regarded us simply as intruders, 



