372 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



nothing in their huts, which are mere sheds on posts 

 to keep the rain out, but they do make beautiful mats 

 and fans and the finest canoes in the Central Pacific. 

 The poor devils are all round the ship to-day sitting in 

 their shirts in their canoes quietly catching the rain and 

 their death-cold, while if they were bare-skinned they 

 would pass scot free. One man specially was a fine 

 specimen of missionary dress ; he had on his customary 

 mats, and in addition had put on a long mother hub- 

 bard gown in which he looked most comical and might 

 have been exhibited as a bearded woman ! and his photo- 

 graph sent round to all religious papers as one of the 

 finest examples of the success of missionary work in 

 converting a naked savage to a clothed Christian ! It 's 

 sickening were it not so comical." 



Agassiz was always fascinated by the skill with which 

 these natives handled their great outriggered sailing 

 canoes. Unlike the superb men of Tonga and Fiji, the 

 Marshall Islanders are small, thin, and stooping, with 

 sullen, forbidding countenances. They are, neverthe- 

 less, the most daring navigators of the South Seas, sail- 

 ing long distances by the aid of their curious " charts," 

 made of sticks lashed together. A number of these, 

 brought back from the expedition, are now at the Pea- 

 body Museum. 



After again coaling at Jaluit, the Albatross proceeded 

 westward through the Carolines, touching, among other 

 places, at Kusaie, Ponapi, and the Archipelago of Truk. 

 On leaving Truk the expedition headed northwest, 

 bound for Guam, our new possession. There the Alba- 

 tross anchored off the old-fashioned stone fort which 

 commands the harbor. At the height of the Spanish 



