DORA.  “So they denominate themselves:  but I have more to tell you yet.  They are all excellent swimmers; men, women, and children.  They throw themselves fearlessly into the water several times a day, and, although in a state of perspiration, they suffer no harm.  They are also dexterous climbers of trees; making the ascent like monkeys, with the hands and feet only.  But their treatment of their sick is, in the highest degree, cruel and unnatural.  Instead of giving assistance, every one shuns the invalid; and if he is thought to be at all in the way, he is taken to some distant spot, whither it is thought sufficient to carry him food at intervals.  It is also their custom to prepare the dying man’s coffin before his eyes; and what is still more incredible, when they see him about to render up his last sigh, they place a bit of moistened ’tapa’[17] in his mouth, whilst the fingers of some friend are employed in closing the lips and nostrils!”

[Footnote 17:  Tapa is a species of stuff made from the inner bark of the mulberry-tree.]

GRANDY.  “All this appears very unfeeling to us my dear; but cruelty is not the intention of the poor Kannaks.  They believe that the soul escapes with the parting breath, and their desire is to secure the spirit within the body until the body wastes; when, according to their doctrine, it animates another body, which, during the process of decomposition in the old one, has been created in a far distant island, where all the good things of this life are found in abundance, and the soul flies thither as soon as its old habitation is destroyed.”

EMMA.  “Poor people!  What a lamentable state of ignorance!  How I pity them.  Are there any more miserable people to be visited here?”

CHARLES.  “Well, here are the Low Islands to the south of the Marquesans; but I have not the pleasure of an acquaintance with the people, therefore I cannot say if they be happy or miserable.  Gambia, Crescent, and Clermont Isles are the principal.  Gambia contains upwards of a thousand inhabitants.  Crescent Isle is not very fertile, and occupied by a few natives, who have erected little huts their, and procure a scanty subsistence.”

MR. BARRAUD.  “Those islands were discovered by the ship ‘Duff,’ when on a missionary voyage in the year 1797.  We shall have to retrace our steps to come to the large islands in our chart; but Easter Island is so near, it may be as well to call; although we may gain nothing by the visit, for it is a sterile spot inhabited by demi-savages, who worship small wooden deities.  They tattoo themselves so as to have the appearance of wearing breeches.  Most of them go naked; some few wear a maro which is made either of fine Indian cloth of a reddish color, of a wild kind of parsley, or of a species of sea-weed.”