MICRONESIA. 81 



In 1837 I became acquainted with him, and saw him frequently, for 

 the purpose of taking down such a vocabulary of the language as he 

 could furnish, which, notwithstanding his long residence, and his 

 general intelligence, was very scanty. He was one of those who 

 seern to have a natural incapacity for acquiring foreign tongues; 

 but with the usages and institutions of the islanders he appeared 

 perfectly familiar, and was able to render a clear and satisfactory 

 account, the general correctness of which has since been fully con- 

 firmed. 



In June, 1835, the London whale-ship Corsair was lost on a reef off 

 Drummond's Island, and one of her boats, with six men, and the sur- 

 geon of the ship, Dr. Smith, reached Ascension, after a passage of 

 seventeen days, during which they underwent extreme suffering. 

 The journal of Dr. Smith came into my hands at Oahu ; it contains 

 some interesting notices.* 



At Oahu, I became acquainted with Mr. G. W. Punchard, who 

 had resided about a year on Banabe, and from him I obtained some 

 additional information. At that time we expected to visit the island, 

 and sailed from Oahu with that object ; but contrary winds, and the 

 delay caused by the survey of the Kingsmill Group, which was found 

 to be much more extensive and important than we had anticipated, 

 made it necessary to renounce this part of our cruise. The descrip- 

 tion which follows has been drawn chiefly from the sources above 

 mentioned. 



Concerning the name of the island, there is so great a discrepancy 

 in the different accounts, that it is difficult to arrive at a satisfactory 

 conclusion. Mr. Punchard pronounced it Banebe ; O'Connell writes 

 it Bonabee ; Dr. Smith, Bonnybay ; Liitke, Pouynipet ; Duperrey, 

 from the accounts of natives of other islands, Pouloupa ; Cantova, 

 Chamisso, and Liitke, from similar accounts, Falupet, Fanope, and 

 Faounoupel Bana, which in the dialects of western Micronesia, 

 would assume the various forms of Fana, Fara, and Fala, seems to 

 form a part of the names of many groups in this archipelago. Thus 

 we have Fana-nmi or Fala-lou, Fara-lis, Fana-dik, (little Fana,) 



* On a subsequent voyage of Dr. Smith to New Georgia, one of the Solomon Group, 

 twelve hundred miles east-southeast of Drummond's Island, he landed on a small neigh- 

 bouring islet, called Eddystone, (by the natives Mondoveree,) and was conducted by the 

 chief to the top of a mountain, where he found the figure-head of the Corsair. It had 

 drifted to the island, and been carried by the natives up the mountain. 



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