THE PAPUAN RACE. 



165 



We were afterwards entertained with a dance, and passed the night 

 at the mbure house. Our previous acquaintance with Tui Mbua, 

 had created an interest in his personal character and his misfortunes ; 

 and we could not avoid a feeling of sympathy, on taking leave of his 

 dreary abode upon the top of a rock, and of his people reduced for sub- 

 sistence, as a last resort, to the fruit of the mangrove. 



On the 29th, the Vincennes sailed from Mbua Bay, and being fa- 

 voured by the wind, anchored in the evening at Naloa; and I was 

 enabled to revisit the two villages. The breeze continuing, we ar- 

 rived, on the 30th, at Muthuata. News here reached us, by one of 

 our survey-boats, of the murder at Melolo of two of our officers, Mr. 

 Underwood and Mr. Henry. For the particulars, I must refer to the 

 Narrative. 



On the 4th of August, I went on board the Leonidas, in company 

 with Captain Vanderford. We found here a young chief, whom he 

 had formerly confined on board ship, as a prisoner ; but the meeting 

 was frolicsome, and without any manifestation of a sense of injury. 



The Squadron having reassembled at Muthuata, we sailed on the 

 9th; and on the following day, we reached Mali. On the lltb, we 

 passed through the reefs that had so long hemmed us in, and once 

 more welcomed the bounding waves and the free ocean atmosphere. 

 Our stay nevertheless had been instructive; for however well versed 

 a person may regard himself in the knowledge of mankind, a visit to 

 the Feejee Islands will bring new ideas. 



In regard to the diseases, I met with the same set as among the 

 neighbouring Polynesians ; though perhaps in somewhat fewer in- 

 stances. Ophthalmia, with the loss of at least one of the eyes, was 

 frequent: an instance was observed of the loss of the nose; also, seve- 

 ral cases of cedematous or dropsical leg ; and a few hump-backs. One 

 lad at Muthuata, was very much deformed ; but being unwilling to 

 show himself, I got only an accidental glimpse of him; I was in- 

 terested, however, in finding that the Feejeeans do not destroy these 

 unfortunates. In cases of wounds, an extraordinary method of blood- 

 letting is sometimes practised ; a slender instrument of bone being 

 passed into the urethra, and thence outwards through the perineum. 



The half-breeds between the Polynesians and Feejeeans, were pre- 

 cisely intermediate in their personal appearance; only in some in- 

 stances, the complexion was not strikingly lighter than in the Fee- 

 jeeans. Tlie half-breeds between the Whites and Feejeeans, differed 



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