THE CAROLINE ISLANDS. 183 



We may remember, in Wilson's voyage, the seat 

 of a cliief carried away as a military trophy. A sort 

 of potters' clay is used at Eap as well as Pelli, 

 where they make longish vessels of it. This art 

 cannot exist in the low islands without the ma- 

 terial. 



The several useful palms of the Philippines 

 (Palma brava, Palma de Cabello negro,) which are 

 mentioned among the plants of the Pelew islands, 

 allow us to judge of the richness of their Flora. 

 Eap enjoys, with Pelew, the advantage of a high 

 land. We find among the productions of Eap the 

 areca-palm (^Areca catheca), the bamboo, and three 

 species of trees growing in the mountains, with 

 the wood of which they build their boats, for which 

 the lower islands only use the bread-fruit tree; the 

 Aleiirites triloba, the clove-tree, (jCaryophyllus aro- 

 maticusy) which is not only not esteemed but de- 

 spised, and also two other trees, which are useless, 

 and of a bitter taste, and serve as a comparison for 

 wliat is bad and ugly ; the orange-tree, the sugar- 

 cane, and, lastly, the curcuma, whicli it is true 

 occurs at Ulea and the other low islands, but in 

 greater abundance at Eap. Kadu recognized, 

 in the Sandwich islands, and among the seeds, 

 which were tlirown on the reef of Iladack, many 

 that w^ere partly native at Eap, and partly in the 

 low islands of the Carolinas. Feis has, of all the 

 islands, the richest soil, and the most luxuriant 

 Flora. The bamboo, which, on account of its 



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