272 THE CRUISE OF THE ' CUEAQOA.' 



apjjeared to me to be neither so well looking nor so well 

 disposed as the Wanga people. It was a very close, damp, 

 disagreeable day, and very unhealthy ; one felt almost as if 

 in a vapour bath. Rain fell heavily, the natives looked as 

 if they meant mischief, so I could not, or at least I did not, 

 venture to go as far as the village, one or two miles distant 

 at the point of the bay. To protect ourselves from the 

 rain, we sat down as well as we could under the protection 

 of a rock. Almost immediately on landing an elderly native, 

 usino- coarse Hawaian oibberish, no doubt derived from 

 traders, made me a proposal touching the other sex which I 

 declined, an abstinence on my part which seemed evidently 

 to surprise him. The articles which were offered for sale 

 were principally their spears and models of canoes ; what 

 they most of all desired to get in exchange was tobacco. 

 Tliey looked a wretched, poor, and emaciated people. Many 

 of the women had the appearance of perfect hags; they 

 wore the lavalava ; the very young girls had nothing at all. 

 The men had the same appendage as at Wanga, and, like 

 the people of the latter place, their woolly hair looked 

 yellow. Some of the women had their hair partly shaved 

 off, or cut close, so as to leave a roadway across the head. 

 Many of them had a scaly appearance all over their bodies, 

 as though their skin were peeling off, leaving a sort of 

 whitish look, and, in some instances, there were actual 

 sores. I mention as an illustration of savage Ufe, that I 

 saw a young girl in a certain periodical condition, who sat 

 down a minute in the water to perform an ablution, and 



