A.—4

40

a message was returned to them by the King, to the following effect: "I know nothing of missionaries, and Ido not wish to know. If you are in need of anything my land produces, say what it is, and you shall be supplied; but go, and return no more." He said afterwards that he had lied in saying he knew nothing of missionariss. " I have been told," said he, "very much about them by the captains with whom I trade ; they said to me, 'Be advised. If you let these missionaries come on shore upon your islands, in less than a year you will not be master over your own people. They will bewitch both you and them, so that you will not be able to do anything, only just what they tell you;' they shall never come here while I live." I have related this much of what I know of Tern Baiteke, for I think that there is always good hope for the civilization of a people who can produce a ruler so energetic and shrewd as this barbarous King of Apemama. North of the Kingsmills lie the Mulgrave group, or what are called the Eallick and Eadack chains. There are about thirty islands almost equally divided between the two ranges, from sixty to one hundred miles apart. They are all of one description, low atolls, some of them of great extent. The largest are Mille and Aur, upon which last the King of the whole group resides. These islands are fertile, for which reason they were named by Alonzo de Saavedra, who first discovered them, Los Buenos Jardines. They are covered with herbage and great trees. Besides cocoa-palms and pandanus in abundance, they have several kinds of bread-fruit, as also jack-fruit, mammy-apple 3, melons, bananas, figs; as also taro, and the larger species of arum, which is excellent and wholesome food, and supplies that valuable fibre of which I have made previous mention. Pish they have in great abundance. They have fresh water in wells. The people are good-looking and strong, remarkably courageous, and of kind disposition. There have been many stories told to the contrary, and not without reason, as many white men have been killed among them, and several vessels taken and burned of. late years; but as far as I know of these matters — and I know the history of most of these affrays—the first fault was in most cases on the side of the Europeans. The southern isles of the group, lying in, the direct line between Mexico and Manila, were frequently visited by Spaniards from the Main, who, as is customary with them, committed all sorts of violence, and many of them, choosing to live among the natives, taught them everything that was bad. That the natural bias of the Marshall islanders is towards hospitality and peace is proved by the accounts of all earlier voyagers who had communication with them, and of M. von Kotzebue, or Tobu, as they call him, who experienced from them the greatest kindness, and remained on some of their islands for many weeks. Similar testimony is afforded by their conduct to the American missionaries, who have now been resident for several years on Ebon, Namurek, Jaluit, and Mille : they supply them with food, assist them willingly in any necessary work, and treat them with affection and respect, though I believe they do not pay much heed to their teaching, being incapable of understanding the Christian religion. They are very much more intelligent than their neighbours of the Kingsmills, and are highly ingenious. The workmanship of their canoes is very superior; they carry usually about forty men, and sail very fast and close to the wind. The Eallick men are good navigators, and have no fear of the sea. They have been accustomed to make voyages to islands at a great distance, such as the Coquilles and Ualan, returning at all seasons, and making a correct landfall. Sometimes they leave their homes for a year or two, and cruise from one isle to another for trade in such articles as they make, and often for mere pastime. They wear fine clothing, both men and women, from across the chest to below the knee; it is of their own making from the leaf of the pandanus, blanched white, and beautifully variegated, the material being dyed of various colours before being plaited. Some of these garments are many fathoms in length, and are pleasant to wear upon the skin, being soft, like coarse duck. This fine pandanus mat is no doubt the fabric so frequently alluded to by the Spanish voyagers of former times, which they believed to have been, wrought in a loom, as did Lopez de Ligaspi and Juan Fernandez. Indeed, the latter speaks of islanders clad in " woven cloth." The products of these islands are kobra, of which the natives now prepare great quantities, cocoanut oil, beche-de-mer, and tortoise-shell. There is no pearl oyster upon any of them. The number of inhabitants is supposed not to exceed 12,000 or 14,000. Upon five of the islands— i.e., Mille, Aur, Jaluit, Ebon, and Namurek—there are European traders, chiefly in the employment of Messrs. Godeffroy. There is also one Capella, who has lately commenced to do business for himself on a large scale, and has some stations here and in the Carolines. Some merchants of Sydney, as Captains Smith, Eandall, Urie, and McDonald, have been used to resort here, as have others of no nationality, such as Captains Pease and Hayes. All have done or are doing well, but all alike keep their proceedings as secret as possible, from commercial jealousy. About half the number of isles in this group are populous; the rest are thinly or only occasionally inhabited. Some of the smaller ones have no cocoanut groves, but are covered with jungles of pandanus; all, however, if in the possession of Europeans, could be rendered valuable. A trade systematically prosecuted, under the protection of a civilized State, would so develop the natural good qualities of the Marshall Islanders as to secure to them a prosperous future. -Eastward of the Marshall Group extends the great archipelago of the Carolines, covering the sea from the Eadack chain to the Palaos, a distance of over 2,000 miles, and containing more than 500 islands, most of which are very little known. Some of them, especially towards the westward, are uninhabited, having been depopulated by the Spaniards for the settlement of the Ladrones. Others are immensely populous, and, with the exception of that particular group known as the Seniavines, at the eastern end of the archipelago, and Yap, at the opposite extremity, have enjoyed very little acquaintance with civilized man. Of the eastern isles of the Carolines, the most important is Ualan, otherwise called Kusaie or Strong Island. It is lofty, basaltic, about eighty miles in circumference, and it has two secure

I.—The Islands generally: Mr. Sterndale.