ELLICE'S AND KINGSMILL GROUP. 



67 



been employed as pilot and interpreter. The natives were constantly- 

 asking him, after their departure, why he " did not fool the vessels 

 and run them on shore, that they might plunder them." One of the 

 above vessels left two pigs, two goats, and a pair of Muscovy ducks; 

 but no sooner had the vessel left, than they killed them all, from some 

 superstitious fears, and threw them into the sea, notwithstanding all 

 Kirby's remonstrances and entreaties to have them spared, and allow 

 him to eat them. 



Kirby says that the natives, though not professed cannibals, some- 

 times eat human flesh ; but their food is generally fish. They do not 

 eat fowls, and will not raise pigs, on account of their filth. Their 

 treacle is extracted from the spathes of the cocoa-nut trees, an opera- 

 tion which, if frequently repeated, destroys the tree. They are very 

 fond of cock-fighting. 



The conduct of foreigners who visit these islands is sometimes of a 

 most outrageous character. Instances of this kind are daily occur- 

 ring, a number of which came to my knowledge; and the following 

 occurrence it seems to me is of a character that ought to be made 

 public, in order to bring such conduct, and the persons who are guilty 

 of it, to tne notice of their own nation. 



NATIVE GIRL OF PERU ISLAND. 



Some four or five months before the Peacock's visit, Kirby states 

 that one Leasonby, master of the whale-ship Offley, of London, and 

 whose mate was an American, named Lake, landed six young girls on 

 this island, whom he had obtained at Peru, or Francis Island. After 



