MR. WILTON.  “Very good, Charles; but if our notes of all the other islands in Polynesia be as extensive as those of the Sandwich Isles, I fear we shall not cross the equator before midnight.”

EMMA.  “I can soon quiet your fears, dear papa; for the description of the remaining isles in North Polynesia rests with the elder members, and of course they are at liberty to abridge them if they please.”

MR. WILTON.  “In that case I will undertake to run over the Ladrones, sometimes called the Marianne Isles.  There are twenty of them; but only five are inhabited, and they lie in the south extremity of the cluster.  They are so close together, and so broken and irregular in their form and position, as to appear like fragments disjointed from each other, at remote periods, by some sudden convulsion of nature.  The coasts consist for the most part of dark brown rocks, honey-combed in many places by the action of the waves.  The islands are fertile, abounding in hogs, cattle, horses, mules, and many other agreeable things; while in order that, like other countries in this sublunary world, they may lay claim to a portion of disagreeables, they are infested with mosquitoes and endless varieties of loathsome insects; and the fish that are found around the coasts are not fit for food.  So much for the country—­now for the natives:—­They are tall, robust, and active; the men wear scarcely any covering, and the women only a petticoat of matting.  Both sexes stain their teeth black, and many of them tattoo their bodies.  The Ladrone Islands were originally discovered by Magellan, who called them ‘las Islas de las Ladrones’ or the islands of thieves; because the Indians stole everything made of iron within their reach.  At the latter end of the seventeenth century, they obtained the name of Marianne from the Queen of Spain, who sent missionaries thither to propagate the Christian religion.  Guajan is the largest island of the group.  Near the Ladrones lies the famous pyramidal rock called ‘Lot’s wife.’  A sea neither broken nor interrupted for an immense space in all directions, here dashes with sublime violence on the solid mass which rises almost perpendicularly to a height of 350 feet.  On the south-east side is a deep cavern, where the waves resound with a prodigious noise.”

MR. BARRAUD.  “The Philippine Isles fall to my share.  They are, correctly speaking, in the Eastern Archipelago.  Luzon, the most northerly, is the largest:  it is a long narrow island, and, like all the others, abounding in volcanoes.  Gold, iron, and copper have been found in the mountains, and rock salt is so abundant in some parts as to be an article of export.  These islands are exceedingly mountainous and fertile, but from the large swamps are very unhealthy.  There are no beasts of prey, but numerous herds of cattle; the inhabitants, however, are too indolent to profit by these gifts of nature; they are actually too idle to make their cow’s milk into butter, and throughout the islands use hog’s