XV 
INTRODUCTION. 
Gentlemen (who were themfelves in.fome fcenes the foie 
aCtors) the Work, for a year and a half, lay dormant, wait¬ 
ing Captain Wilson’s return from Bengal, who arrived 
the latter end of laft fummer : iince that time every part 
of it hath been revifed, and gone over, with the mod; 
fcrupulous exadtnefs and attention ; and I am myfelf firmly 
perfuaded, no work of this nature was ever prefented to the 
Public, in every refpedt better authenticated. 
I fhould not have thought it neceffary to have mentioned 
the manner in which I have conducted this publication, had 
I not been aware of there being fcenes and fituations in it 
which might ftartle many of my readers ; but, as the truth 
of them can be fully eftabliihed, they will ferve to prove that 
good fenfe, and moral redfitude, may exift in many uncivi¬ 
lized regions, where the prejudices and arrogance of polilhed 
life are not always difpofed to admit them. 
Thofe who are acquainted with the voyages to the South 
Seas, mu ft have remarked a great fimilitude in the manners 
of the illands fcattered over that immenfe ocean ; at the 
fame time it cannot have efcaped their notice, that there are 
cuftoms and characters peculiar to aim oft every particular 
group,-—The fame obfervation is applicable to the inhabi¬ 
tants of the Pelew Islands ; who, tho’ in many refpeCts- 
refembling their Southern neighbours, rnuft be allowed to 
have many charadteriftical features of their own—-which an 
intelligent reader will eafily difcoveix 
As 
