[256] W. Ellis, op. cit. iii. 112, 125.
[257] J. Williams, Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands, pp. 466 sq.
[258] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, op. cit. i. 254 sq. As to Hiro, the god of thieves, see also J. A. Moerenhout, op. cit. i. 447-449.
[259] W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 351 sq. Compare J. A. Moerenhout, op. cit. i. 502 note1, 523.
CHAPTER VI
THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE MARQUESANS
§ 1. The Marquesas Islands
The Marquesas are an archipelago of eleven or twelve chief islands in the South Pacific, situated about nine hundred miles to the north-east of Tahiti. They fall into two groups, which together stretch in a direction from north-west to south-east, from 8° to 11° of South latitude. The south-eastern group, of which Hivaoa (Dominica) is the largest island, was discovered by the Spanish Admiral Alvaro Mendana de Neyra in 1595, but, so far as appears, it was not again visited by Europeans until 1774, when Captain Cook touched at the islands on his second voyage. Curiously enough, the north-westerly group, of which Nukahiva is the largest and most important island, remained unknown until 1791, when it was discovered by the American Captain Ingraham, who named the group the Washington Islands. About a month later, in June 1791, the French navigator Marchand visited the same islands, and in 1797 the first missionary, William Crook, was landed from the missionary ship Duff. The whole archipelago is now known as the Marquesas, a name which the Spanish Admiral Mendana bestowed on the islands discovered by him in honour of the Marquess de Canete, Viceroy of Peru, by whose order the voyage had been undertaken.[1]