ELLICE’S AND KINGSMILL GROUP. 
45 
Until the 3d of April, they continued to sail to the northward 
without meeting with any islands. On that day they made Drum¬ 
mond’s Island of the charts, one of the Kingsmill Group, where they 
encountered the regular northeast trades. This island is called Tapu- 
teouea by the natives; it is situated in latitude 1° 20' S., and longi¬ 
tude 174° 57' E. It is of coral formation, is thirty miles long in a 
northwest and southeast direction, and varies in width from a half to 
three quarters of a mile. This, however, only includes the high por¬ 
tions, or that which is above the ocean level a few feet. It is thinly 
covered with cocoa-nut and pandanus-trees, and not a patch of grass 
is to be seen, or any sort of shrubbery or undergrowth. To the 
leeward, or on its west side, the reefs and sand-banks extend off some 
distance, gradually increasing from the northwest point to the south¬ 
east, where they are as much as six and a half miles in width. 
This reef is interrupted in places, and there is good anchorage off the 
town of Utiroa, towards the northwest end, near a small sand-bank, 
which is usually bare. The whole shore of the island as they ap¬ 
proached it appeared covered with houses, presenting to the view 
one continuous village. At intervals of a mile there were buildings 
of huge proportions, far exceeding in size any they had before met 
with. 
As they approached, canoes were seen coming towards them from 
all parts of the island. The appearance of these natives was totally 
different from those already seen to the south. They appeared of the 
middle size, slender, and well proportioned. Their colour was a 
shade or two darker than that of the Tahitians, and they exhibited a 
greater variety of face and features, with black glossy hair, finer than 
in other races. Their features were small, but high and well marked; 
their eyes large, black, and bright; their nose straight or slightly 
aquiline, and always somewhat widened at the base; their mouth 
large, with full lips and small teeth, which were very imperfect from 
decay, and they are the only natives in the Pacific with this defect. 
From the projection of the cheek-bones, the eyes had in some the 
appearance of being sunken. They wore mustaches, but their beards 
were scanty. They evidently set a great value on these as ornaments, 
priding themselves much upon their appearance. The few officers 
who had whiskers were very much admired, the natives patting their 
whiskered cheeks with great marks of admiration. 
Altogether they were thought to resemble the Malays. Many of 
them were observed to have the same disease as exists at Ellice’s 
Islands, disfiguring the body and giving it the same scurfy and dis¬ 
gusting appearance. 
