66 
ELLICE’S AND KINGSMILL GROUP. 
more freely, but of obtaining much interesting information relative to 
this group. 
Kuria or Woodle’s Island has four towns on it which Kirby estimates 
to contain between four and five thousand inhabitants. Its geographi¬ 
cal position is in latitude 0° 14' 30" N., longitude 173° 27' E.: its 
greatest length is five miles, northwest and southeast,. and its greatest 
width, which is at the southeast end, is two and a half miles. The 
remainder is very narrow, and almost divided towards the centre. 
The northwest portion has two small lagoons, two or three hundred 
yards from the beach; the water in them is not so salt as the ocean. 
In one of them, the bottom consists of red mud on one side, while it is 
a white clay on the other. ’They are used as fish-ponds by the chiefs. 
There is a reef extending to the northwest nearly three miles. 
The island is but partially clothed with trees, consisting of cocoa- 
nut, pandanus, and a few stunted bread-fruit. It has no outer reef, 
and may be approached very closely. It affords neither wood, water, 
nor refreshments. The natives who visited the ship brought off very 
little for trade: fish-hooks and lines, small mats, cocoa-nut syrup, and 
a few cocoa-nuts, composed their whole stock. 
The females that accompanied the canoes wore the maro, and were 
thought to be better-looking than the others of the group; but their 
whole manner was in keeping with the purposes for which their fathers 
and brothers had brought them off. 
No war implements were seen; the men, who were naked, resem¬ 
bled the others of the group, except that they did not appear so much 
disfigured by scars. 
Kirby states, that on the first night of his landing, they stripped 
him of every thing but an old pair of trousers, after which he was 
conducted to a great conclave of natives, assembled around a large 
fire, which he then believed was intended to roast him. He had fortu¬ 
nately gone on shore in the highest chief’s canoe, and placed himself 
under his protection, as well as he knew how. After some considera¬ 
ble talk, instead of being roasted, he was furnished with a wife, and 
taken to reside with his friend, the principal chief, who, with the rest 
of the natives, ever after treated him kindly. After a few months’ 
residence in the family of the chief, he gave his own daughter to Kirby 
for a wife. The result of this was much jealousy and envy between 
his first wife, of common origin, and his last, of high rank, until the 
former was ousted and sent back to her parents, leaving the chief’s 
daughter in quiet possession of the house. 
During Kirby’s residence on the island, several English, and one 
American whaler, had been off the island, on which occasions he had 
