168 ETHNOGRAPHY. 



islands, nothing need be added here with regard to the origin of the 

 natives. But some evidence has since been found, showing that the 

 supposition which attributed the darker complexion and more abun- 

 dant beard of the natives of Vaitupu to a mixture with the Melanesian 

 tribes in their vicinity, was well-founded. Quiros, who visited the 

 island of Taumaco in the year 1610, took from them a slave, a native 

 of the island of Chicayana, which lies four days' sail from Taumaco, 

 and carried him to Lima. From him, when he had learned to con- 

 verse in Spanish, Quiros obtained much information concerning the 

 islands in the neighborhood of Taumaco. Among others he heard of 

 Guaytopo, an island which Pedro said was larger than Chicayana. 

 He described it as lying two days' sail from the latter island, and three 

 from Taumaco. The women there wore a veil of blue or black called 

 foafoa. A large vessel from Guaytopo, with more than fifty persons 

 in it, sailing to an island called Mecayrayla to get tortoise-shell, of 

 which they make ear-rings, and other ornaments, was driven out of 

 its course and carried backward and forward till all but ten died. 

 These arrived at Taumaco. They were white, except one who was of 

 a dark color. Likewise, in his own island of Chicayana, Pedro had 

 seen arrive from thence a vessel of two hulls (i. e. a double canoe) 

 full of people white and handsome.* 



There can be no doubt that Guaytopo is Vaitupu (or Ko Waitupu}. 

 Besides the similarity of name, we have the fact of the men wearing 

 ear-rings of tortoise-shell (a very unusual ornament in Polynesia), and 

 of the women being dressed in a veil having the name of foafoa, which 

 is, no doubt, the long fringe of pandanus-leaves called fou, which they 

 wear at this day. The circumstance of the dark-colored man being 

 in the canoe with the nine white (i. e. light-colored) people, shows 

 that the natives of Vaitupu had then blacks living among them. It 

 is very probable that they were slaves obtained in their wars with the 

 neighboring islands, and if so, they would probably be introduced by 

 few at a time, and might thus produce no change in the dialect of the 

 group, while, by intermarriage with the natives, they might never- 

 theless give rise to some peculiarities in their physical characteristics, 

 as well as their customs. The name of Mecayrayla, the island to 

 which they were sailing, may be a mistake in copying or printing 

 from Quiros's manuscript. We heard the natives of Funafuti speak 

 frequently of a place called Nuku-rairai, or Nuku-lailai, which we at 



* Burney's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 269. 



