440 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
with the priest Paao, is his arriving alone, though 
he might be the only survivor of his party. If 
such a person ever did arrive, we should think he 
was a Roman Catholic priest, and the reported 
gods an image and a crucifix. 
The different parties that subsequently arrived 
were probably, if any inference may be drawn 
from the accounts of the natives, survivors of the 
crew of some Spanish ship wrecked in the neigh¬ 
bourhood, perhaps on the numerous reefs to the 
north-west; or they might have been culprits com¬ 
mitted by their countrymen to the mercy of the 
waves. The circumstance of the first party leaving 
the island in the same boat in which they arrived, 
would lead us to suppose they had been wrecked, 
and had escaped in their boat, or had constructed 
a bark out of the wreck of their ship, as has sub¬ 
sequently been the case with two vessels wrecked 
in the vicinity of these islands. 
It is possible that one or other of the islands 
might have been seen by some Spanish ship pass¬ 
ing between Acapulco and Manilla ; but it is not 
probable that they were ever visited by any of these 
ships. An event so interesting to the people 
would not have been left out of their traditions, 
which contain many things much less important; 
and, had the Spaniards discovered them, however 
jealous they might be of such a discovery becom¬ 
ing known to other nations, that jealousy would 
not have prevented their availing themselves of 
the facilities which the islands afforded for refitting 
or recruiting their vessels, which must frequently 
have been most desirable during the period their 
ships were accustomed to traverse these seas. 
These accounts, but particularly the latter, are 
generally known, and have been related by dif- 
