place to give some account of the place
where our unhappy lot was cast, and of its rude and miserable
inhabitants. It will be impossible to convey a correct idea of their
ignorance, poverty, and degradation; but some conception may be formed,
by imagining what the condition of beings must necessarily be, when
wholly separated from the rest of their species, stripped of all the
refinements of life, and deprived of all means and opportunities for
improvement.

We were now upon the small piece of land called by the natives _To'bee_,
but known to navigators by the name of _Lord North's Island_, situated
between the third and fourth degrees of north latitude, and in longitude
one hundred and thirty-one degrees twenty minutes east. It is also
known by the name of _Nevil's Island_ and _Johnston's Island_; and it
has been hitherto considered by navigators and others as uninhabited.
This is not surprising; as we were told by the natives, that no white
man had ever visited the place; though it seemed, from the pieces of
iron in their possession, and from other circumstances, that they had
had some communication with the Spaniards and Portuguese in that quarter
of the world.[4] Like many other islands in those seas, this is
surrounded by a coral reef, which is from an eighth to one half of a
mile wide; but outside of the reef the water is apparently fathomless,
the water being as blue as it is in the middle of the ocean; and the
largest vessels may in many places approach within a quarter of a mile
of the beach. The whole island rises so little above the level of the
sea, that the swell often rolls up to a considerable distance inland.
It is about three quarters of a mile in length, and not far from half a
mile in width. There were upon it three villages, situated on the
shores, and containing, in all, between three and four hundred souls, at
the time when we were taken there; but the number was considerably
diminished by famine and disease before we left.

The inhabitants are in a state of entire barbarism and ignorance. The
men wear a sort of girdle or belt made of the bark of a tree. This is
girded round the loins so as to leave one end to hang loose behind, the
other is brought forward and fastened to the belt in front. This is
their only clothing. The females, after arriving at the age of
womanhood, wear an apron made of the leaves of a plant, by them called
_kurremung_, split into fine strips and plaited. This extends from