of Lord North’s Island. 223 
to jump from the canoes into the water and wade to the shore. 
On landing, they found the beach lined with women and children, 
who made the air resound with horrid yells and screams; “and 
their gestures and violent contortions of countenance resembled the 
frantic ravings of Bedlamites.” * 
Their treatment of the American captives on the land was not 
less severe and painful than it had just been on the water; and, 
by a rare exception, and contrary to what had been experienced 
at the Pelew Islands, the women were, if possible, more harsh 
and unfeeling than the men. The prisoners were soon divided 
among the captors, but not without some controversies as to their 
respective claims. The author of the “ Narrative” (Holden) had 
the good fortune to fall into the hands of a comparatively humane 
master; as was also the case with the captain of the ship, who, 
it may be remarked, was the more highly valued by them on ac- 
count of his being a large, fleshy man. 
The condition of these islanders, socially and physically, though 
they form so small a portion of the human family, may, like every 
other fact, deserve notice and be entitled to a place in one of the 
chapters of the history of our race; and a brief account of them, 
as related by the two American seamen, and by the captain of 
the ship, will now be given. 
They are, in the first place, insulated from the rest of their fel- 
low-beings, though occasionally having that slight intercourse with 
European ships, which was not lasting or frequent enough to pro- 
duce any effect upon their habits and manners. Like the Pelew 
Islanders, they were, when first seen on the water, entirely naked ; 
but it was their custom to wear a sort of girdle or belt made of 
the bark of a tree; this is girded round the loins, so as to leave 
* Holden’s ‘‘ Narrative,” pp. 74, &c. 
