MBUA BAY AND MUTHUATA. 223 



against them. On the war-party reaching Malaki, they put to death 

 every man and woman on the island, and carried off the children 

 captive. It is said that they returned to Ambau with some of the 

 little ones suspended to the masts and sails of their canoes ; and it is 

 further alleged, that the rest were kept for the rising generation, to 

 exercise them in the art of killing ! However extraordinary these 

 ciroumstances may appear, I can readily believe, from the knowledge 

 I have of the people, that far greater atrocities than even these are 

 occasionally practised. 



Malaki has the appearance of having once been well cultivated, 

 and there are a number of terraced taro-patches of great extent, 

 which had been erected with great care, but are now entirely de- 

 serted. This island is eight hundred feet high, and on the top are 

 the remains of a fortification of stone, whose walls are four feet high, 

 surrounded by a moat several feet deep, and ten feet wide. From 

 this height the passages through the reefs were very distinctly seen, 

 and could be traced for a long distance. On presents being dis- 

 tributed to all the natives who were present, it was amusing to see 

 the young son of a chief, according to the custom of his country, 

 very deliberately taking possession of the whole, and rolling them up 

 in his maro. 



On the 3d, they were still beating up for the Malaki Passage, and 

 were in hopes of being able to pass out of it ; but the wind being 

 ahead, it was found too narrow to beat through. After sustaining two 

 sharp thumps, it was deemed advisable to return and await a more 

 favourable opportunity. Some of the officers again landed on a small 

 island of much less height than Malaki, but nothing interesting was 

 found. It had evidently been inhabited, from the overgrown and 

 deserted plantations which were every where to be seen. The island 

 was, for the most part, covered with a sweet-scented grass, (Andro- 

 pogon scheenanthus.) 



They had now been seven days upon this coast, with the wind 

 blowing directly along it, and had only made about fifty miles. This 

 channel through the reefs must always be fatiguing and wearing to 

 both vessel and crew. For the whole distance they found the bottom a 

 white clay, and the depth of water varying from five to twenty fathoms. 

 As they approached the windward side of the island, they found the 

 weather to become more rainy, and the winds much stronger. 



On the 5th, at daylight, they passed out of the reef and stood over 

 for Mbua or Sandalwood Bay. The weather during the day set in 



