OCEANIC MIGRATIONS. 167 



beach. As well as could be judged from a distant view, the houses 

 were large, but of rude construction. The natives frequently pointed 

 on shore, and urged us to accompany them to their village. As an 

 opening was seen into the lagoon, an officer was sent in a boat to 

 examine it. On his return, he was accompanied by an old chief, 

 who introduced himself, in plain terms, as the god of the island. He 

 was a large, stout man, apparently about fifty, with good, prominent 

 features, and short hair nicely brushed and oiled. His legs were 

 much swollen with the elephantiasis. Besides the maro and girdle, 

 he wore a large colored mat around his waist. His body was 

 anointed with cocoa-nut oil, and his whole appearance showed that 

 he had come on a visit of state. He informed us that his proper name 

 was Faikatea, but that he was also the veritable Foilape, the great 

 deity of the island. After remaining a few minutes, and receiving 

 some presents, he pointed to the sun, and explained that he must take 

 his leave, in order to arrive at the island before night. He also urged 

 us to accompany him, but finding us not disposed to accept the 

 invitation, he put off in his canoe, and was followed, at little intervals, 

 by the rest of the natives. Many of us were struck with the extra- 

 ordinary likeness which this personage bore to the head chief of 

 Fakaafo ; it was so plain, that, taken in connexion with other circum- 

 stances, the opinion of a family relationship between the two sove- 

 reigns seems not unreasonable. 



" We cannot be expected to form any very near estimate of the num- 

 ber of inhabitants on the island. We presume it to be pretty densely 

 peopled. The village which we passed was quite large, and houses 

 were observed on most of the islets. Perhaps forty canoes visited the 

 ship during the day, having about two hundred persons on board, all 

 of whom, with one exception, were grown men ; so that we are justi- 

 fied in assigning at least a thousand inhabitants to the island. 



" The resemblance, or more properly, the identity of the dialect of 

 these natives with that of the Union islanders, leaves little room to 

 doubt that one was derived from the other ; and the fact that the 

 people of Fakaafo had no knowledge of these islands, while on the 

 contrary their own group is well known to those of Vaitupu, seems to 

 indicate that the former was the source of population to the latter. 

 At the same time, it is not unlikely that the Union islanders them- 

 selves may have been a colony from Orosenga, in the Samoan 

 Group." 



To the foregoing, which was written immediately after leaving the 



