EEAMANGA. 310 



many of whom were then at a feast, urging them to remove 

 speedily inland, and remain there, which some did, and 

 others did not. Eventually, however, the introduction of 

 the disease was fastened upon liim, and lie and his wife were 

 murdered six months after in consequence. It is clear 

 that if mi.ssionaries are to look for safety in these islands, 

 they must be reheved from the risk of being held re- 

 sponsible for the infamous acts and exterminating policy of 

 the traders. In the face of these it is a marvel that they 

 can even for a year exercise their impopular functions, and 

 effect even as much as they do. Up to 1865, two women 

 and eleven young men had been baptized, and were in 

 full communion. Four young men are now candidates 

 for baptism, sixty are reading in the Gospel of St. Luke, and 

 two hundred are in the primer. 



The government is patriarchal. Cliieftainship is heredi- 

 tary. Since the decimation of the population, the island 

 has been in the hands of petty chiefs, who have usually 

 much power for evil, and but little for good. 



Infanticide is uncommon, occurring only when the 

 mother has died in child-bed, before the infant can take to 

 the breast, in which case the little unfortunate is buried 

 alive with the mother. In spite of the various causes of 

 mortality, however, aged men, it seems, are not unfrequent 

 in the island. The women tattoo their faces, and wear 

 a girdle of leaves round their loins. They are generally 

 chaste, yet breaches of the seventh coramaudment frequently 

 occur, though death is the penalty. The wives of deceased 



