398 ASPECT OF THE PEOPLE. 



walls. Each plot appeared carefully cultivated, and 

 had a bamboo house in the centre. From the path 

 the ground rose gently towards the interior for 

 about eighty yards, when it was capped by a little 

 escarpment, above which was a flat of cultivated 

 ground and another group of houses. This plateau 

 was about sixty feet above the sea, but towards the 

 east the island rose higher. Not a block of stone 

 could be seen but coral and coral rock. The 

 fences were formed of blocks of old ma?andrina and 

 astraea*, whether brought from the present coral reef 

 or out of the ground, 1 could not learn ; but in the 

 escarpment were many large masses of coral, ap- 

 parently in situ, and the rock beside them was 

 evidently a coral conglomerate formed beneath 

 the sea ; and 1 should tbink all the corals were of 

 existing species, and recently elevated, geologically 

 speaking. 



The people were short and stout, but not ill-look- 

 ing, and many of the children, especially the boys, 

 were really handsome, with dark eyes and roguish 

 countenances, apparently full of fun. The people 

 seemed very industrious and comfortable. The 

 women, decently dressed, were pounding rice under 

 the shade of the trees. The men wore only wrap- 

 pers round their waists, and seemed not so well em- 

 ployed as the women, though some were building a 

 prahu, and they were all, probably, fishermen. We 

 had some difficulty in bargaining with them, as we 

 none of us, as yet, spoke Malay, and there seemed 



