324 THE CRUISE OF THE ' OURAQOA.' 



we ]iasge(1 in the evening, and at ten o'clock next morning 

 ivaclicd Ilea, the smallest of the group, wliere we stayed 

 till one o'clock. Of course I had no opportunity of making 

 any observations myself, but, as there are some interesting 

 foots furnished by former visitors, I am tempted to introduce 

 them. 



A Mr. Edwards who had l)een wrecked on the coast of 

 Uea, and resided some time on the island, gave Captain 

 Erskine a fovourable impression of the people. He repre- 

 sented them as superior in moral qualities to any other 

 islanders he had met with. The women (and there is 

 corroborative testimony to this fact) are chaste befoi'e 

 marriage and faithful afterwards. Their influence with the 

 men is said to be considerable, and such is the respect paid 

 to them that the slander of a woman would be regarded as 

 a cn.^us belli between tribes. Hood^ mentions a most gallant 

 and humane act of the natives in saving the lives of fourteen 

 English seamen, the crew of a ship tliat had foundered, and 

 who had constructed a raft on which they were seen drifting 

 helplessly past the island. Ha\ing been rescued with much 

 difficulty, tlioy were, on reaching the shore, taken to the 

 huts, and most hospitably entertained for three weeks, until 

 they were received on Iward II. M.S. 'Esk.' It was a 



which tticj were indebted to wrecked crews that had resided some 

 months among them. Another donation from these favoured visitorr. 

 was the plague of a certain disease (Erskine, js. 363). What an un- 

 questionable right have these ill-used savages — as wc call them tc 



say to Christianity, 'Physician, heal thy.self.' 

 > Cruise of H.M.S. 'Fawn,' p. 164. 



