344 THE GBUISE OF THE ' GUBAQOA. 



in earthenware pots manufactured by the women, and it is 

 a curious fact that earthenware jars are not found in any 

 other islands except tlie Fijis and Espiritu-Santo. They 

 have no intoxicating ava, but drink enormous quantities of 

 salt-water. It appears that they have only one meal a day. 

 The missionaries are so little inclined to attribute the 

 defects, vices, or crimes of the natives to any other cause 

 than their heathenism, that it is with some surprise we find 

 the Eev. Mr. Murray declaring that if the New Caledonians 

 of the present day no longer deserve the encomiums which 

 Captain Cook passed upon them, the probability is that the 

 'altered conduct of the natives is to be charged chiefly to 

 the account of their visitors ; ' and such is his opinion of 

 that conduct as to make it seem to him ' a wonder that 

 they do not kill every white man that places himself in 

 their power.' ^ Nothing, indeed, could be more courteous 

 and friendly than the reception which Cook and his party 

 met with. They were guided and accompanied in their 

 excursions by the natives, who evinced not the least un- 

 easiness at their presence. He found the ilat plain between 

 the beach and the hills filled with villages ' finely culti- 

 vated,' and watered ' by little rills, conducted by art from 

 the main stream, whose source was in the hills.' The huts, 

 which resembled beehives in shape, were found to be 

 insupportable within. In their general effect they had a 

 neat appearance externally, with ornamental work on their 



' Missions in Western Polynesia, p. 269. 



