Unfortunately our intercourse with these islanders of the Solomon group was confined to the little episode above related, and as a favourable breeze once more sprang up, we soon lost sight of these simple savages and their island. On this occasion the members of the Expedition were unanimously of opinion (which is not always the case in matters of personal impressions), that the inhabitants of Malaýta were the wildest, most uncivilized race of men we had as yet encountered in our voyaging to and fro round the globe.
During the night numerous watch-fires were visible on the peaks of the island. Were they lit for the protection of the slumbering inhabitants against the cold and damp of the night, or were they alarm signals for the entire population of the island, warning them against dangers that menaced them? If any apprehensions were entertained by the natives of Malaýta
that we had visited their shores with hostile intent, they must have been of short duration, for the same wind which prevented our making Port Adam, wafted us the following morning—it was the 16th October, 1858—in sight of Sikayana.
FOOTNOTES:
[191] Occasionally called Bonabe, Bonibet, Funopet (by the French, Ascension). It lies in 6° 58′ N., and 158° 20′ E., and, with the two low atolls adjacent of Andema and Paphenemo (called by the English Ant's Island and Pakeen respectively) were named by their discoverer, Admiral Lütke, the Senjawin group, after the name of his ship.
[192] Captain Andrew Cheyne, of the English mercantile service, to whom the sea-faring world is indebted for a very complete and excellent account of the islands of the West Pacific, and who last visited Puynipet in 1846, reckoned the population of the island at that period at from 7000 to 8000. See a description of islands in the Western Pacific Ocean, North and South of the Equator, with sailing Directions, &c. p. 94. London, J. D. Potter. 1852.—Sailing Directions from New South Wales to China and Japan. Compiled from the most Authentic Sources. By Andrew Cheyne, first Class Master, Mercantile Navy. p. 136. London, J. D. Potter. 1855.
[193] The natives of the Engano Islands, to the west of Sumatra, use precisely similar instruments for the same purpose.
[194] Yaws is a very common disease among the lower class of the western and eastern coast-population of England. It is unknown almost in Ireland, where the poorer classes rarely eat fish.
[195] Captain Cheyne adds to the foregoing lists the following articles; fish-hooks, butcher's-knives, chisels, hand-saws, bill-hooks, planes, augers, piles, iron-pots, razors, needles, twine, drills, gay parti-coloured cotton cloths, cotton hose, woollen cloths, trinkets, glass beads, straw-hats, chests with lock, key, and handles, spirits. The equivalents as laid down by Captain Cheyne are as follows:—
| 12 hens | = | 24 | sticks | of | negro-head | tobacco, | or 4 ells of calico. |
| 100 yams | = | 10 | " | " | " | ||
| 100 bread-fruit | = | 10 | " | " | " | ||
| 100 cocoa-nuts | = | 10 | " | " | " | ||
| 1 cluster of bananas | = | 2 | " | " | " |