LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



ava, and to tobacco. Strong attachments exist between 

 husband and wife and between parents and children. 

 The troubled state of the island prevented the Americans 

 from making the thorough examination that had been 

 planned ; nevertheless much information was collected in 

 respect to the manners and customs of the natives, and 

 the results of missionary labors among them; and the 

 naturalists did not fail to study the vegetation and to 

 observe the characteristics of the coral reefs and lagoon. 



The voyage from the Tongan harbor, Nukualofa, to 

 Levuka, on Ovolau, in the Feejees, occupied four days, a 

 brief but dangerous transit, for the wind blew gales and 

 the charts were incomplete and erroneous. The Feejee 

 Islands, girt by white encircling reefs, were of a charming 

 aspect, Ovolau especially so, the highest, most broken, 

 and most picturesque. In all this beauty it was hard to 

 bear in mind so says the narrator that here was the 

 abode of a savage, ferocious, and treacherous race of can- 

 nibals. Wilkes carried his instruments ashore, and with 

 a party of twenty-five officers and naturalists ascended 

 the peak Andulong, where he succeeded in getting the 

 meridian altitude. From this summit a beautiful view 

 was obtained of the island, some eight miles long by 

 seven in breadth. After descending he established an 

 observatory upon a projecting insulated point, and then 

 divided his men into parties for a survey of the group. 

 This survey was one of the most important achievements 

 of the expedition, and the charts to which it led have 

 been of constant value ever since. The squadron re- 

 mained in Feejeean waters for three months, and during 

 most of the time the four large vessels and seventeen 

 auxiliaries were engaged on the hydrography. The nat- 

 uralists had fair opportunities, but it was not safe for 

 them to penetrate freely the interior of the islands. 



A study was made of the characteristics of the native 

 inhabitants, then almost unknown to the civilized world, 



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