54 ADDRESS. 



mariner is constantly exposed, and which appeal to government 

 with a force beyond the power of all language to portray. * 



* Those islands which are located in the south-western regions of the Pacific Ocean, 

 are known to some geographers by the general appellation of Australasia; while those 

 which lie more to the east and north, are known by that of Polynesia. The latter 

 include the Ladrones, the Caroline, the Sandwich, the Marquesas, the Society and the 

 Friendly Islands, with all others connected with those groups. Immediately to the 

 west of this circuit are the Philippines, the capital of which is Manilla. They are said 

 to comprise eleven hundred in number ; but some hundreds of them are very small, 

 and they are all nominally subject to the Spanish government at Manilla. The 

 natives of these islands are known to be affable, hospitable, and honest ; cultivating 

 the soil with industry and skill, and subsisting chiefly on rice, cocoa-nuts, and salted 

 fish. 



Nearly a thousand miles to the eastward of the Philippines, between them and the 

 Caroline Islands, are eighteen others, disposed in a group or cluster, to which the 

 Spaniards of the Philippine Islands have given the name of Pdaos, on account of the 

 tall palm-trees, with which they are covered in great abundance. They are generally 

 known, however, to English and American navigators, by the appellation of the 

 Pelew Islands. Their inhabitants were once considered as ferocious cannibals, delight- 

 ing to feed on human flesh ; and this opinion was strengthened by reports of their 

 proneness to cut off every trading ship, of which they could obtain the mastery, and 

 massacre the crew. Such was the current and popular opinion, until the year 1753, 

 when Captain Wilson, commander of the Antelope packet, in the service of the East 

 India Company, had the misfortune to suffer shipwreck among them in that year. 

 Captain Wilson was the first to give them a very different character from that which 

 they had hitherto borne ; and his printed narrative represents them as hospitable^ 

 friendly, and humane. 



But new and additional light has been recently thrown upon the manners, character, 

 and customs of this insulated people, by a similar disaster which befel the American 

 whale ship Mentor, Captain Edward C. Barnard, who, in 1831, was wrecked on a 

 coral reef connected with the most easterly island of this group, arid his vessel entirely 

 lost The captain, and eleven of his crew, fell into the hands of the natives, and 

 remained on one of these islands for the space of six months ; during which time they 

 were well treated, and acquired a considerable knowledge of the language, character, 

 manners, customs, and habits of the natives, who cheerfully assisted them in arranging 

 the means for eight of their number to seek some civilized settlement, from whence 

 they might transmit a ransom for the rest. But in attempting to navigate their way, 

 in a native canoe, to Amboyna, one of the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, which lie to the 

 south-west of the Pelews, they were captured by the natives of Lord North's Island, 

 who reduced them to the most abject state of slavery and starvation. Here their 

 misfortunes may be said to have commenced. 



After ten months' captivity and suffering, Captain Barnard and one of the crew 

 effected their escape on board a Spanish vessel, and ultimately reached the United 

 States in safety. One of those who still lingered in bondage was put to death by the 

 natives for some trifling offence, and another of them literally died of starvation. Two 

 others, soon after, suffered a similar fate if it may be termed suffering, to find relief 

 from their miseries in death. There were now only two individuals remaining of the 



