324 TEiJ GEUI8E OF TEE ' GTJliAQOA: 



we passed in the evening, and at ten o'clock next morning 

 reached Uea, the smallest of the group, where we stayed 

 till one o'clock. Of course I had no opportunity of making 

 any observations myself, but, as there are some interesting 

 fiicts furnished by former visitors, I am tempted to introduce 

 them. 



A Mr. Edwards who had been wrecked on the coast of 

 Uea, and resided some time on the island, gave Captain 

 Erskine a favourable impression of the people. He repre- 

 sented them as superior in moral qualities to any other 

 islanders he had met with. The women (and there is 

 corroborative testimony to this fact) are chaste before 

 marriage and faithful afterwards. Their influence with the 

 men is said to be considerable, and such is the respect paid 

 to them that the slander of a woman would be regarded as 

 a casus belli between tribes. Hood^ mentions a most gallant 

 and humane act of the natives in saving the lives of fourteen 

 English seamen, the crew of a ship that had foundered, and 

 Avho had constructed a raft on which they were seen drifting 

 helplessly past the island. Having been rescued with much 

 difficulty, they were, on reaching the sliore, taken to the 

 huts, and most hospitably entertained for three weeks, until 

 they were received on board H.M.S. 'Esk.' It was a 



wliicli tliey wei'e indebted to wrecked crews tbat had resided some 

 months among them. Another donation from these favoured visitorf. 

 was the plague of a certain disease (Erskine, jj. 363). What an un- 

 questionable right have these ill-used savages — as we call them — tc 

 say to Christianity, 'Physician, heal thyself.' 

 1 Cruise of H.M.S. 'Fawn,' p. 164. 



