FEBJEE GROUP. 377 



their clothes, and were seen in a state of nudity by the chiefs and 

 people, who sent off a deputation immediately to Captain D'Urville, 

 to represent the indelicacy of it, and to request that he would not 

 allow his men to appear so. 



The people keep their bodies well oiled, which they find a preven- 

 tive against colds. A Feejee mother therefore desires beyond almost 

 all other articles of civilized manufacture, a glass bottle, to contain her 

 scented oil, and early every morning she may be seen with her flock 

 of little ones around her undergoing ablution, which done, she 

 applies the contents of her bottle, until they fairly glisten. 



There is but little opportunity for profitable trade in these islands, 

 and they possess few commercial advantages. A cargo or two of 

 biche de mar may be collected in the course of a favourable year, 

 with a small quantity of tortoise-shell. Shells as curiosities can be 

 procured, but the value is of course small. Sandalwood, as I have 

 before stated, is exhausted. On the other hand the group offers 

 many inducements for the recruiting of crews after long voyages, and 

 yields many of the necessary supplies, with the best facilities for 

 procuring wood and water. I deem the harbour of Levuka, in the 

 island of Ovolau, to be best suited for these purposes. It is easy of 

 access and egress, affords a safe anchorage after it is entered, and the 

 natives are unusually well-disposed. It is also the seat of all the 

 white residents, who are therefore at command, to act both as pilots 

 and interpreters. 



The approach to it is attended with little difficulty, and if a vessel 

 be foiled in entering it before nightfall, there is ample room to keep 

 under way between Ambatiki and Ovolau. 



The articles most in request are muskets, powder, ball, and flints, 

 whales' teeth, plane-irons, vermilion, buttons, bottles, trunks and 

 chests, looking-glasses, axes, hatchets, cloth, gimlets, fish-hooks, 

 knives, and scissors, and some places blue beads. There is, how- 

 ever, no certain and regular demand, the natives at one time preferring 

 one thing, at another another, and sometimes refusing to trade alto- 

 gether. Their tastes are in fact capricious. A little vermilion is 

 generally a passport to their favour; when a native has a small quan- 

 tity put on his nose or cheeks, his good-will is at once conciliated, 

 and the envy of those around him excited. 



To trade at, or even to visit these islands for refreshment, is, as 

 must already have been seen, attended with no little danger both to 

 life and property. The character of the navigation in a sea abound- 

 ing with reefs and shoals, of which no chart possessing any claim to 



vol. in. 95 



