26 TEE CBUISE OF TEE 'CUBACJOA.' . 



the shore. The cow, goat, pig, and dog have been intro- 

 duced ; at all events I am not aware that tlie latter animal 

 was known to the natives before tlie an-ival of the white 

 man. They breed a great quantity of pigs, which struck 

 me as being generally small and rather meagre. There is 

 but one horse in the island and that belongs to the mission- 

 ary ; not a venomous reptile is to be found, and even the 

 centipede is unknown. 



The things most in request by the natives in their barter 

 witli tlie whites, are gaily-printed calicoes, hardware, and 

 silver coin. They give in exchange cocoanut fibre, pump- 

 kins, fowls, and otlier produce. Occasionally they offer 

 cotton, which they as yet cultivate on nuich too small a 

 scale. The average temperature during the rainy season is 

 about 80° Fahrenheit, and this would seem to be pretty 

 nearly the case throughout the year. The climate is 

 healthy, the diseases few, and with the exception of dysen- 

 tery, which made its appearance onoe during the last ten 

 years, no epidemic has been known, or, at all events, remem- 

 bered. The population increases in a ratio of 2-| per cent, 

 annually. In 1864 the mmiber of inhabitants amounted to 

 5,001, distributed in the six following villages: Avatele, 

 1,075; Alofi, 1,011; Hakupu, G31 ; Mutalau, 910; Liku, 

 334 ; Tavahiki, 1,040. 



In the course of the years 18G2 and 1863, some Peruvian 

 slavers, which roved through these seas as unmistakable 

 pirates, inflicted great mischief on their way on the natives 

 of this island, killing .several of them, and carrying off 



