332 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



make good furniture from the wood of the island, and 

 their hats, similar to those called Panama, are really ex- 

 cellent. 



These people possess excellent whale-boats, and have a 

 church in the middle of their village handsomely decorated 

 within; the woodwork being inlaid with mother-of-pearl. 

 The vessels which they use for their sacramental rites are of 

 solid silver, and were purchased by them from traders who 

 had procured them from a wreck. 



I think Eakahanga (sometimes called the Island of the 

 Grand Duke Alexander), although quite 20 miles in circuit, is 

 one of the least-known atolls of this part of the Pacific, 

 probably for the reason that its village being built out of 

 sight, and the anchorage difficult to find, the ordinary run of 

 mariners have passed it by as uninhabited. The density of 

 the cocoa-nut trees on Rakahanga is very remarkable. 



The inhabitants have just laws well administered by them- 

 selves, and invariably extend the kindest hospitality to any 

 wandering or shipwrecked sailors. No Europeans reside 

 among them, their teacher being one of their own race who 

 was instructed in Christianity by a Polynesian missionary. 



It is when encountering this sort of thing, after having 

 supped on Fiji horrors of the past, that one becomes absolutely 

 indignant at what I must call the insufferable assumptions of 

 shallow writers, who, because it is fashionable, I suppose, are 

 perpetually abusing the missionaries of every creed. 



At the risk of being called 'a narrow-minded clerical,' I 

 have come to the conclusion, after mature reflection, that from 

 a purely commercial point of view, the inhabitants of a 

 Pacific island devoted to, say Wesleyanism, are infinitely 

 better people to trade with than if their 'right of private 

 judgment ' took the form of devil-worship, and their freedom 



