6o2 Voyage of the Novara. 



tant from the western island, two splendid large canoes 

 approached the ship, in which were fifteen men stark naked, 

 except for a piece of linen romid their loins. They were all 

 tall, robust, powerful men, five and a half to six feet high, 

 some with long, others broad faces, all having long noses, of 

 a light brown colour, and the greater number with glossy 

 black hair. With the exception of one who had whiskers, 

 they were beardless ; almost all being tattooed from the elbow 

 to the shoulder. They sj)oke broken English, and even had 

 English names. We never saw among the savage races such 

 finely built, well-proportioned, healthy-looking men, as these 

 inhabitants of the coral reef of Sikayana. Their free, unac- 

 customed, familiar deportment was something surprising. But 

 our astonishment reached its height when one of these 

 apparently savage childi^en of nature, happening to find on a 

 table on the gun-deck a draught-board lying open, immedi- 

 ately challenged one of the by-standers to a game, which it 

 seems he understood so well that he beat his antagonist two 

 games out of three. We afterwards heard that the natives at 

 Sikayana have learned draughts, as also an English game at 

 cards known as " odd fourth," of which they seemed passion- 

 ately fond, from some English sailors, who several years 

 before had spent five months on these islands, prejoaring 

 Trepang, or hiche-de-mar, for the Cliinese market, those sea- 

 slugs having formerly been found here in large quantities. 



To our question whether they had fresh provisions for sale, 

 and of what description, they replied that they possess on 



