prevail from December to May.  According to their own statement, they were driven about by the winds for seventy days, without getting sight of land, until they arrived opposite to Guivam.  When they sailed from their own country, their two boats were quite full, carrying thirty-five souls, including their wives and children; but several had died miserably on the way from the fatigue which they had undergone.  When some one from Guivam wished to go on board to them, they were thrown into such a state of terror that all who were in one of the boats sprang overboard, along with their wives and children.  However, they at last thought it best to come into the harbor; so they came ashore on December 28, 1696.  They fed on coconuts and roots, which were charitably supplied to them, but refused even to taste cooked rice, which is the general food of the Asiatic nations. [Previous castaways.] Two women who had previously been cast away on the same islands acted as interpreters for them....

[Lived by sea-fishing and rain water.] “The people of the country went half naked, and the men painted their bodies with spots and all kinds of devices....  As long as they were on the sea they lived on fish, which they caught in a certain kind of fish-basket, with a wide mouth but tapering to a point at the bottom, which was dragged along underneath the boats; and rain-water, when they could catch it (or, as is stated in the letter itself, preserved in the shells of the coconut), served them for drink.  When they were about to be taken into the presence of the Father, whom, from the great respect which was shown to him, they took for the governor, they colored their bodies entirely yellow, an operation which they considered highly important, as enabling them to appear as persons of consideration.  They are very skilful divers, and now and then find pearls in the mussels which they bring up, which, however, they throw away as useless things.”

[Not the first time for one.] But one of the most important parts of Father Clain’s letter has been omitted by Capt.  Salmon:—­“The oldest of these strangers had once before been cast away on the coast of the province of Caragan, on one of our islands (Mindanao); but as he found only heathens (infidels), who lived in the mountains or on the desert shore, he returned to his own country.”

[Yap camotes from Philippines.] In a letter from Father Cantova to Father d’Aubenton, dated from Agdana (i.e.  Agana, of the Marianne Islands), March 20, 1722, describing the Caroline and Pelew Islands, it is said:—­“The fourth district lies to the west.  Yap (9 deg. 25’ N., 138 deg. 1’ E. Gr.), [174] which is the principal island, is more than forty leagues in circumference.  Besides the different roots which are used by the natives of the island instead of bread, there is the batata, which they call camote, and which they have acquired from the Philippines, as I was informed by one of our Caroline Indians, who is a native of the