THE ST. LAWRENCE ISLANDS. 129 



Ilarick ; and it afforded him great pleasure that we 

 were able to give him some account of him. The 

 Tamon returned to Stobual, with many presents, 

 whither they also invited me; but as I had still 

 to make observations to determine the situation of 

 this place, I deferred my visit on shore. Kadu 

 wished to accompany the Tamons, which I per- 

 mitted him to do, though I was firmly convinced, 

 that inconstant and fickle as the South Sea islanders 

 are, he would not return. He was carried ofi^' in 

 triumph. All the canoes followed that of Tigedien, 

 where, elevated to the rank of a distinguished man 

 by our favour, he occupied the place of the Tamon. 

 In the afternoon I went on shore, and immediately 

 took an excursion, accompanied by the active 

 Tamon Tiuraur. The island of Stobual is half a mile 

 in length, and a quarter of a mile in breadth ; the 

 fine mould forms here already considerable hills. 

 The palm and bread-fruit trees thrive extraordi- 

 narily, and I was agreeably surprised by a young 

 ])lantation of twenty banana trees. There is more 

 taro here than on the other islands : they daily 

 brought us some of it. That the root, compared with 

 that of the Sandwich islands, is very small, is pro- 

 bably owing to the want of moisture, tliough the 

 people assured me that they would tinive very 

 well, if they were not so often destroyed by the 

 inhabitants of Mediuro. Very numerous habita- 

 tions convinced me of the thick population of this 

 island. In my promenade I came up to the habit- 



VOL. II. K 



