' FROM ISLAND UNTO ISLAND: 331 



fished for more than twenty years, but a Tahiti firm obtained from 

 it when last fished over 100 tons of shell in less than eighteen 

 months. The women of Manihiki are especially handsome, 

 and being much sought after by the strolling kidnappers of 

 the Pacific, the labour supply of the Tahitian traders failed 

 them, and they abandoned Manihiki, as in this place lagoon- 

 fishing is exclusively the province of the weaker sex, and 

 the introduction of other labour would have necessitated a 

 repetition of the violent measures they were obliged first to 

 adopt in the establishment of the fishery. I believe that now 

 the Manihikans Avould welcome the advent of renewed com- 

 merce on other arguments than the ' click ' of a revolver, as 

 they are a well-disposed and highly-intelligent people, profess- 

 ing Christianity, able to read and write, and having a resident 

 minister. 



The Manihikans are wonderfully ingenious and skilful in all 

 mechanical arts. They live in stone houses, and build excellent 

 whale-boats, which they manage with great skill. They dress 

 like Europeans, in cotton fabrics, which they have received 

 from ships in exchange for cocoa-nut oil, or as wages at guano 

 diggings. They have carpenter's tools, and most necessaries 

 of all sorts. 



The cocoa-nut groves of Manihiki alone would, under proper 

 supervision, yield 300 tons of copra a year. 



One of the most extraordinary isles in the Southern Sea is 

 that of Rakahanga, about 30 miles from Manihiki. Here the 

 traveller finds himself face to face with a civilisation of no 

 mean order. The inhabitants of Rakahanga, numbering about 

 500, live for the most part in a village built of stone ; the 

 houses are large and substantial, plastered with coral lime ; 

 they have panelled doors and Venetian blinds, and the floors 

 are covered with most skilfully made mats. The natives 



