522 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL 



holds good to this day, since they still continue " to live 

 together in perfect harmony and contentment ; to be 

 virtuous, religious, cheerful, and hospitable ; to be patterns 

 of conjugal and parental affection, and to have very few- 

 vices." Admiral De Horsey concludes by saying, that no 

 one acquainted with these islanders could fail to respect 

 them, and' that they will lose rather than gain by contact 

 with other communities. 



Although the island was quite uninhabited when the 

 mutineers of the Bounty arrived there, many remains 

 show that a considerable population must once have lived 

 on it. Burial-places, large flat paving-stones, stone spear- 

 heads and axes, round stone balls, and even stone images, 

 sufficiently prove that this remote speck of land had not 

 only been visited by stray savages, but had been the 

 settled abode of a considerable population, who yet had 

 time to devote to the carving of stone images with tools of 

 the same material. 



10. The Marquesas. 



]N"orth of the Low Archipelago, and about 900 miles 

 from Tahiti, are situated the Marquesas, consisting of eleven 

 chief islands, of which seven are inhabited. They are 

 divided into two groups — a north-westerly, comprising 

 Uapu, Uahuka, ISTukahiva and Eiau ; and a south-eastern, 

 of which Tauata, Fatuhiva, and Hiva-oa are the chief. 

 They have a total area of some 500 square miles, and a 

 population which has been very variously estimated, but 

 is probably over 6000. They were first seen by Mendana 

 in 1595, but the IST.W. group was not discovered till 

 nearly 200 years later. 



The Marquesas, which are all of volcanic origin, re- 

 semble the Navigators' group in their general appearance 



