VILLAGE OF WAURITI. 349 



boliaving with great decorum, and appearing much 

 interested in all lie saw. After dinner we found 

 the chairs waiting for us on the beach, and pro- 

 ceeded to the village, ascending a deep ravine wdth 

 a streamlet running down the centre, overshadowed 

 by the most luxuriant foliage. 



After emerging from this ravine we found our- 

 selves near the highest point of the island, of which 

 we had a good view. Every part exhibited abundant 

 signs of industry and cultivation, although parched 

 up from want of rain. The chief of Wauriti re- 

 ceived us with great hospitality, and offered refresh- 

 ments of tea, rice cake, and a sort of beer, made 

 from the Sago palm. He then escorted us round the 

 village, which contains a very good church and 

 school-house, constructed under the direction of a 

 Dutch Missionary, who had been for some years a 

 resident on the island, with his family, and who ap- 

 peared to have been very successful in converting 

 the natives ; but the distress occasioned by the 

 want of rain was too great a trial of their faith; 

 they declared that their old gods had sent the 

 drought upon them as a punishment for deserting 

 them, for they had never had such a visitation 

 before Christianitv had been introduced into the 

 island. The poor Missionary's influence was over ; 

 he was obliged to quit the island, and went to Am- 

 boyna. A mile north of Wauriti we visited a 

 smaller village inhabited by the descendants of some 

 Dutch families, who had lived upon the island many 



