26 TEE CRUISE OF THE 'CURAQOA.' 



the shore. The cow, goat, pig, and clog have been intro- 

 ^ ducecl ; at all events I am not aware that the latter animal 

 Avas known to the natives before the arrival of the white 

 man. They breed a great quantity of pigs, which struck 

 me as being generally small and rather meagre. Tliere is 

 but one horse in the island and that belongs to the mission- 

 ary ; not a venomous reptile is to be found, and even the 

 centipede is unknown. 



The things most in request by the natives in their bartei* 

 Avith tlie whites, are gaily-printed calicoes, hardware, and 

 silver coin. They give in exchange cocoanut fibre, pump- 

 kins, fowls, and other produce. Occasionally they offer 

 cotton, which they as yet cultivate on much too small a 

 scale. The average temperature during the rainy season is 

 about 80° Fahrenheit, and this would seem to be pretty 

 nearly the case throughout the year. The climate is 

 healthy, the diseases few, and with the exception of dysen- 

 tery, which made its appearance once during the last ten 

 years, no epidemic has been known, or, at all events, remem- 

 bered. The population increases in a ratio of 2f per cent, 

 annually. In 1864 the number of inhabitants amounted to 

 5,001, distributed in the six following villages : Avatele, 

 1,075; AM, 1,011; Hakupu, 631; Mutalau, 910; Liku, 

 334 ; Tavahiki, 1,040. 



In the course of the years 1862 and 1863, some Peruvian 

 slavers, which roved through these seas as unmistakable 

 pirates, inflicted great mischief on their Avay on the natives 

 of this island, killing several of them, and carrying off 



