Oe an OD, 
LETTER IV. 
ERAMANGA—ITS APPEARANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS—DILLON’S 
BAY—WHALING ESTABLISHMENT—-EFATE—-ITS NATURAL 
FEATURES—PANGO BAY-——THE ISLETS OF FILI AND MELE 
AND THEIR INHABITANTS—VISITS PAID TO THEM. 
Aneltauhat, Aneityum, 
Fune, 1872. 
oc) 
Mors than a hundred years ago, a British ship hove-to off 
one of the islands of Western Polynesia, and sent a boat 
ashore for wood and water. The natives, filled with astonish- 
ment at this strange and unwonted sight—for it was the first 
time that they had seen any vessel larger than their own miser- 
able canoes—crowded down to the beach, and met the boat’s 
crew on their landing. They mixed with the strange white 
beings at first with fear and caution ; but that.soon wore off, and 
then they began to provoke the whites by pulling up the boat 
and trying to run off with the oars. A quarrel arose, and the 
arrows and spears of the natives began to fly through the air, 
till the loud report of the white men’s muskets rang in their 
ears, and the fall of one or two of their number drove them 
into the bush. The boat then went off to the vessel, which 
sailed away after firing a heavy gun to frighten the natives still 
further. 
The vessel was that of Captain Cook, and this was the manner 
