304 THE CRUISE OF THE ' CUEAQOA: 



was not much.' Wliether it be true that tliis revereml 

 Efentleman tliiiiks it a sin to hxugh or not, I cannot say ; but 

 tliis I can, that during tlie time he was witli us, this was the 

 only occasion on whirli I saw in him even the faintest 

 approach to a smile. 



The filing over, the Commodore, however, was disposed 

 to take a more lenient and hopeful view, otherwise there 

 was nothing to prevent iiis sending a boat on shore without 

 the slightest risk, and destroying all the houses and the few 

 canoes, if lie had so wished. I could see, on the steep side 

 or slope of the range, several houses in different directions, 

 one or two under a big precipitous cliff. Wherever the 

 busli had formerly been burnt, there seemed to be one or 

 two houses raised upon it ; the underwood here and there 

 appeared to have grown up again, but tlie big trees in all 

 these places invariably seemed dead. 



Having nothing more to detain us, the ' Cura^oa ' weighed 

 and proceeded to sea, and at half-past three o'clock r.xr. we 

 again anchored in fifteen fathoms in Dillon's Baj^ Messrs. 

 Henry and Gordon dined witli the C!ommodore. Before 

 leaving they gave us one of those semi-transparent circular 

 rings of calcareous spar or feldspath, called ' navalae,' five 

 or six inches in diameter, and about one and a half in 

 thickness, which serve for sacred money, and with which 

 the purchases of women for wives are generally made ; one 

 of them, together with a spear, or a l)ow and arrows, 

 constituting the market price. 



Mr. Gordon sent his men off twice in the afternoon to 



