102 THE CRUISE OF THE ' CURAQOA.' 



isles, iucluded by the natives in the general name of 

 Ilaafuluhao, now amounts to 4,000, a number indicating 

 a considerable diminution within a few years. The 

 causes of this are supposed to be emigration to other 

 o-roups, shipwrecks, and the destructive effects of certain 

 epidemics, such as intermittent fevers, diarrhoea, whooping- 

 cough, which have very recently done great mischief. 

 Tlie population has also suffered from other diseases such 

 as dysentery, phthisis, scrofula, affections of the bladder, 

 ophthalmia, different kinds of ulcers, and a disease known 

 by the name of tona, which very much resembles fram- 

 boesia. Though the climate is very debilitating to the 

 whites, it is said not to be worse than that of the other 

 Friendly Islands, nevertheless the average temperature of 

 Vavau is higher, reaching to 90° in -the shade through the 

 greater part of the year. 



The actual form of government may be defined a limited 

 monarchy ; but it is right to observe that the country is 

 in a state of transition, caused by the effects of Christianity 

 which the Wesleyan Missionaries have introduced, and 

 which hiis been embraced by the greater part of the in- 

 habitants, including a very small number who have become 

 Eoman Catholics. The laws have been collected into a 

 printed code, and there is reason to believe that morality 

 is on the increase in spite of the bad examples set by 

 the whites who occasionally visit these islands. Illicit sexual 

 intercourse, adultery, theft, backbiting (very civilized 

 features by-the-by) are the most usual offences. 



