156 Cruise of the "Alert" 



The men are fine specimens of the Polynesian race, well-built, 

 and with frank, open countenances ; but the women are much inferior 

 to them, both in good looks, and, as it seemed to me, in manners. 



A great number of both sexes were affected with a rather 

 unsightly skin-disease, evidently of a parasitic character, which 

 they call " peeter." It begins on the chest and shoulders in 

 small circular patches somewhat resembling " ringworm," and 

 eventually extends over the entire cutaneous surface, causing 

 desquamation of the cuticle, and giving rise to a very distressing 

 itching. When the disease has become well established, the skin 

 exhibits grooves of the "snail-track" pattern, which intersect each 

 other in various directions ; so that on examining at a few yards 

 distance a man who is extensively diseased, he seems at first sight 

 as if covered with artificial cicatrices, arranged so as to represent 

 some hieroglyphic device. They possess no remedy for this 

 disease, and were therefore extremely anxious to obtain from us 

 some treatment for it. In other respects they seem to be a very 

 healthy people. 



We crossed the narrow strip of land only a few hundred yards 

 wide on which lies the settlement, and then found ourselves on 

 the margin of an extensive lagoon, on the smooth sandy beach 

 of which outrigger canoes in great numbers were hauled up. The 

 island is an irregular atoll, that portion on which we were being 

 continuous for about three-fifths of the circle, while the remaining 

 portion was made up by a straggling chain of islets. 



During our subsequent stroll through the settlement, I obtained 

 some information from an intelligent native who spoke a little 

 English, and seemed to be one of the principal people. He 

 seemed to be very proud of his small stock of knowledge con- 

 cerning " Britannia," as he called Great Britain, and was very 

 particular in explaining that he was a Protestant, and disapproved 

 strongly of Catholicism, which he looked on as the height of 

 infamy. He was therefore surprised and much crestfallen at 

 hearing that all Englishmen were not Protestants. 



