HALF-CASTE CHILDREN. 451 



service to shipping, particularly as they make 

 excellent sailors, and excel as headsmen in 

 whalers, where the keenness of their half-savage 

 eyes, and their dexterity in throwing the spear, 

 render them most formidable harpooneers. The 

 young half-castes I saw were very interesting, 

 having a ruddy dark complexion, with fine eyes and 

 teeth. On Preservation, and the islands in the 

 neighbourhood, there were twenty-five children ; 

 among whom were some fine looking boys. Had 

 the survey just been commenced I should have 

 taken one of them in the Beagle. Their fathers, 

 I am happy to say, give them all the instruction in 

 their power : many can read the Bible, and a few 

 write. 



The common native belief in the transmigration 

 of souls did not extend, I was glad to find, beyond 

 the mothers, whom nothing could induce to think 

 otherwise. When we were at Preservation Island, 

 there was a young woman on her way, in company 

 with her father, to Port Dalrymple, to be married 

 to an European ; and I afterwards learned from 

 the clergyman there, that he had not for some time 

 seen a young person who appeared to be so well 

 aware of the solemn vow she was making. 



The principal trade of the Straitsmen is in the 

 feathers of mutton birds, (Sooty Petrels,) which 

 annually visit the islands, between the 15th and 20th 

 of November, for the purposes of incubation. Each 

 bird lays only two eggs, about the size of that of a 



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