THE CAROLINE ISLANDS. ^15 



Pafilog,) Cantova gives a terrible picture. * Ac- 

 cording to the accounts he received, they are 

 hostile cannibals. They appear to us, in the ac- 

 count of the grateful Henry Wilson, who owed his 

 return to his country to their generous hos])itality, 

 in the most favourable light, the partial colouring 

 of affection, adorned with every virtue ; and the 

 fact proves, that they exercised most of these vir- 

 tues. We live with Wilson among this people, see 

 with our own eyes, and judge ourselves. Since 

 Wilson's time, English, Spaniards, and Americans 

 have continually visited the Pelew islands; several 

 Europeans have settled there, and the Trepang is 

 constantly collected on their reefs for the mart of 

 Canton. Kadu, who had been at the Pelew islands, 

 gave us a comparison between the two people. 

 This comparison, according to the opinion of our 

 friend, was not favourable to the natives of the 

 Pelew islands. He particularly censures them for 

 total want of modesty, so that they brutally follow 

 the impulse of nature in open day. He excited in 



* Peuple nombreux, mais inhumain et barbare ; les hommes 

 €t les femmes y sont enti^rement nues et se repaissent de chair 

 humaine, les Indiens des Carolines regardent cette nation avec 

 horreur, comme I'ennemie du genre humain et avec laqu'elle il 

 est dangereux d'avoir le moindre commerce. Ce rapport me 

 paroit fidele et tres conforme a ce que nous eri a appris Je 

 P. Bernard Messia, comme on le pent voir dans sa relation." 

 This account is nowhere found, and appears never to have 

 been printed. 



P 1. 



