VATH. 225 



Iti conformity with the desire expressed by the chiefs, 

 the Missionaries of the ' Dayspring ' left two native teachers 

 in the isle of Vate whom they had trained in their schools. 



Tills island was named by Captain Cook, who discovered 

 it in 1774, Sandwicii Island ; the natives call it Vate, or 

 Fate, or sometimes Efat. It is from thirty to thirty-five 

 miles long, and about half that in width : it is subject to 

 frequent sliocks of earthquake, which are sometimes 

 tolerably violent; in the year 1864 there were as many as 

 six sharp ones. Tlie soil is of remarkable fertility. 



Nothing positive is known respecting the amount of 

 population, which is variously computed at from ten to 

 twenty thousand inhabitants, distributed in some sixty 

 villages, more than half of which are on the coast. The 

 climate, without being precisely unhealthy, is tolerably damp; 

 but there is no assignable cause for the decrease of popula- 

 tion reported by the only missionary and white man who 

 has hitherto lived in the island. According to his calculation, 

 in 18(34, it would appear that a tentli of the population had 

 died in the village where he lived, but this amount exceeds 

 the average ; it seems, however, certain that the deaths are 

 always in excess of the births. In'luenza constantly occurs ; 

 in 1861 the island was severely scourged Ijy an epidemic 

 attack of measles accomj^anied with dysentery. 

 • The language has a great affinity to those of the neigh- 

 boming islands. It is said there are three distinct dialects, 

 one of them spoken in the isles of File, IMele, and the 

 adjacent islets, another all round the coast, and a third in 



Q 



