[166]. A very ingenious and satisfactory account of the cause of the surf, is to be met with in Marsden’s History of Sumatra, p. 29. 32.
[167]. The inhabitants of the Palaos, New Philippine, or rather Caroline Islands, at the distance of almost fifteen hundred leagues from Mangeea, have the same mode of salutation. “Leur civilité, et la marque de leur respect, consiste à prendre la main ou le pied de celui à qui ils veulent faire honneur, et s’en frotter doucement tout le visage.” Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, tom. xv. p. 208. Edit. 1781.
[168]. Something like this ceremony was performed by the inhabitants of the Marquesas, when Captain Cook visited them in 1774. See his 2d Voyage, Vol. III. It is curious to observe, at what immense distances this mode of receiving strangers prevails.—Padillo, who sailed from Manilla in 1710, on a voyage to discover the Palaos Islands, was thus received there. The writer of the relation of his voyage says, “Aussitôt qu’ils approchèrent de notre bord, ils se mirent à chanter. Ils régloient la cadence, en frappant des mains sur leurs cuisses.”
Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, tom. xv. p. 323.
[169]. The dances of the inhabitants of the Caroline Islands have a great resemblance to those here described. See Lettres Edif. et Curieuses, tom. xv. p. 315. See also, in the same volume, p. 207, what is said of the singing and dancing of the inhabitants of the Palaos Islands, which belong to the same group.
[170]. Such accidents as this here related, probably happen frequently in the Pacific Ocean. In 1696, two canoes, having on board thirty persons of both sexes, were driven by contrary winds and tempestuous weather, on the isle of Samal, one of the Philippines, after being tost about at sea seventy days, and having performed a voyage from an island called by them Amorsot, 300 leagues to the east of Samal. Five of the number who had embarked, died of the hardships suffered during this extraordinary passage. See a particular account of them, and of the islands they belonged to, in Lettres Edifiantes and Curieuses, tom. xv. from p. 196 to p. 215. In the same volume, from p. 282 to p. 320, we have the relation of a similar adventure, in 1721, when two canoes, one containing twenty-four, and the other six persons, men, women, and children, were driven from an island they called Farroilep, northward to the isle of Guam, or Guahan, one of the Ladrones or Mariannes. But these had not sailed so far as their countrymen, who reached Samal as above, and they had been at sea only twenty days. There seems to be no reason to doubt the general authenticity of these two relations. The information contained in the letters of the Jesuits, about these islands, now known under the name of the Carolines, and discovered to the Spaniards by the arrival of the canoes at Samal and Guam, has been adopted by all our later writers. See President de Brosse’s Voyages aux Terres Australes, tom. ii. from p. 443. to p. 490. See also the Modern Universal History.
[171]. See Vol. III. book ii. chap. 1., where this island is said to be about six leagues in circuit.
[172]. The reader will observe, that this name bears little affinity to any one of the names of the three chiefs of Wateeoo, as preserved by Mr. Anderson.
[173]. See Vol. IV. p. 2., 5.
[174]. Mr. Anderson, in his journal, mentions the following particulars, relative to Palmerston’s Island, which strongly confirm Captain Cook’s opinion about its formation. “On the last of the two islots, where we landed, the trees, being in great numbers, had already formed, by their rotten parts, little risings or eminences, which, in time, from the same cause, may become small hills. Whereas, on the first islot, the trees being less numerous, no such thing had as yet happened. Nevertheless, on that little spot, the manner of formation was more plainly pointed out. For, adjoining to it, was a small isle, which had, doubtless, been very lately formed; as it was not, as yet, covered with any trees, but had a great many shrubs, some of which were growing among pieces of coral, that the sea had thrown up. There was still a more sure proof of this method of formation a little farther on, where two patches of sand, about fifty yards long, and a foot or eighteen inches high, lay upon the reef, but not, as yet, furnished with a single bush or tree.”