think, as I have thought before, that the name given by inhabitants of these lands to their land is simply the name of the district at most, sometimes of the town. When given by people of another island it is that of the whole, to them. I found to-day, and must have seen it before, that Ambrym is simply "the fire." It was only in looking at my words that I found na-gambrrr, fire, and Ambrrr, the name of the island. Na is an article, and g for euphony. Coral rocks appeared on the hillside to-day.

July 27th.-I went up the Erskine river at 8 A.M. with Messer. The people very timid, careless of barter, and only anxious to get rid of us. They were very anxious to get rid of us, and to keep us away from what seemed to be the chief's house, as it was large and had a fence round it. The houses here have all a little rounded apse-like end. I bought a figure of an ancestor for a small knife. We were followed by a youth, who mimicked everything we said with surprising accuracy. In all this, as in other points, the accuracy of Cook is as remarkable as ever, it never fails. Not a woman to be seen anywhere, all were hidden. They are a small, poor, weedy people. The fishing party got another fair haul in P.M. I went to the head of the bay and found a river, and brought off some of the stone of the country, a fresh-water deposit, as I take it.

July 28th.-Weighed at 6 A. M., and went plump on to the bank of river deposit opposite Observation Point; laid out the Stream anchor on the quarter; and at 9 she floated off easily. Got outside and made sail, and saw H.M.S. Sappho. All the south side of Mallicollo is a mass of islands, with deep-water channels, between them, on this wise—

2

S.W.Bay

་་་་་་

Pt Sandwich

enclosing a great piece of water, which I shall call Tyndall Sound. Got a letter from Lieutenant Suckling, but just too late, to say that the west island in all this contains mummies in houses, but I had passed it. Came quietly on, and stood off and on for the night.

July 29th.-Stood in and steamed into South-West Bay (Mallicollo), at II A M., finding a pretty regular bottom, and anchored in ten fathoms black sand. I went to a good village on the point, and found the people very friendly-many smeared with lime, and all dirty, but good-natured. They were glad to see us at their houses. One had a small bone of a man's leg hanging to his right ear as an ornament. I at once got some words,* the people

helping one, and seeming very intelligent about it. To my satisfaction I found two houses, which were seemingly public-houses, or dead-houses, certainly the former. At one a man laid down and

mimicked going to sleep. Just inside a low door came the chief post of the house, and round this were figures of straw covered with clay in which the figure was moulded, showing the navel and nipples. At knees and elbows a face was moulded, the skull was there entire, with a moulded clay face. They were quite ready to part with these heads for a knife, and to allow any number of common skulls to be taken. I made a prize of some for Col. Fox, and got him one or two very good stone and shell adzes. All about were little figures, hammers for killing pigs, and other odds and ends of mummery. I saw two other villages; all are alike. I suppose each village contains eighty people or so; but we only saw men, no women or children, whom they repeatedly said were sisi, which I take to mean no or not there, or something equivalent. I saw a titi (woman's girdle) hanging in a house, and a fine mat in

process of making, just as in Ambrym and Port Sandwich. The dress of the men is also the same. The dancing-ground (as at Port Sandwich) has lallies and figures round it, the lallies very large, and with different faces from those at Port Sandwichflatter. We went from West Point to the hollow of the bay, and found that what looks like a stream is a mouth of an estuary, which opens out to a good size inside. The seining party got a good haul of fish there, mostly mullet. A man at the first village gave me a lively account of the effects of a hurricane, which had destroyed their fruit trees, and had stopped their pigs from fattening.

July 30th.-Went to the Point again, with Messer and Perry, and got a beautiful shell adze, with difficulty. It was, of course, hard to make them understand. Messer says, that in a house which he entered yesterday he found an inclined place which smelt badly. The natives explained that they laid bodies upon it, and made a sign of shooting it through with arrows, then of eating it; but I am altogether in doubt about eating men, because I saw no signs of its being done, though they often caught at their wrists with their teeth, and said “kaikai, kaikai.” These fellows evidently did not know how to smoke, though they knew the name of tobacco. They were glad of pieces of red cotton.

I got away at 3.30 P.M., under steam; and going three and a-half knots, got along the land as far as ten miles north of the bay to a spit, whence the land trends north for eight or nine miles, then got under sail to a light air, and drifted along. The land all about South-West Bay is a volcanic conglomerate, and volcanic tufa and dust; whereas at Port Sandwich it is apparently a fresh-water deposit.

July 30th.-Off the north-west end of Mallicollo at daylight; a long slope to the north, like a volcanic slope. Sailed up to St. Bartholomew Island, which again, together with all the southern land of Espiritu Santo, is in five terraces. There is a

To eat, in Fijian.

Hat island, in three major and several minor terraces close to. All is surprisingly like Vaté. Islands innumerable surround the shores, and give a distinctive character to the landscape. Anchored in ten fathoms, hard coral bottom, with great precaution; and went to see the people, landing in a little nook down which is a feeble run of fresh water. The people crowded round the boat, women as well as men, and the women were not at all abashed, but held leaves of the fan palm before their breasts, and had very little round their middles.

The people are all small, but the women strikingly so-tiny creatures. I at once got some words from a man who had been with Mr. Hebblewhite, and was assured by him that the people on the opposite land spoke the same language as themselves. The features of many remind me of the Pentecost people whom we saw, of the Bulibasi type-straightish nose, small pointed chin, and cheerful expression. The men dress by winding flat sinnet over their loins, until there is a great sort of mousing all over their hinder parts and lower part of the belly. A maro of rather neat, pretty mat, three inches wide, is brought up and tucked in; and long tails of fine sinnet, stained with red and yellow, hang to the ground from the left quarter. In the head are a comb, tufts of feathers, and leaves of croton (which are also stuck in the girdle); and armlets of beads are worn. This is full dress; but it dwindles down to nothing but a string among the poorer and younger. A man who had been in Fiji said there were lots of chiefs-" plenty turanga ;" and, I think, wished to hint that if one laid a knife upon the ground it would be safe.

Going up to the village we found a man's hand hanging to a bush, and gathered from the pantomime that the owner had stolen cocoa-nuts, had gone to another island, been caught and clubbed, and I think we made out--eaten. It was not more than two days old. We walked through the straggling village, whose houses are simple roofs, without walls sometimes, usually open at both ends,

* See Appendix.