sses, in more
than one place, his amazement at the surpassing loveliness of the women;
and says that many of the Nukuheva damsels reminded him forcibly of the
most celebrated beauties in his own land. Fanning, a Yankee mariner of
some reputation, likewise records his lively impressions of the physical
appearance of these people; and Commodore David Porter of the U.S.
frigate Essex, is said to have been vastly smitten by the beauty of the
ladies. Their great superiority over all other Polynesians cannot fail
to attract the notice of those who visit the principal groups in the
Pacific. The voluptuous Tahitians are the only people who at all deserve
to be compared with them; while the dark-haired Hawaiians and
the woolly-headed Feejees are immeasurably inferior to them. The
distinguishing characteristic of the Marquesan islanders, and that
which at once strikes you, is the European cast of their features--a
peculiarity seldom observable among other uncivilized people. Many of
their faces present profiles classically beautiful, and in the valley of
Typee I saw several who, like the stranger Marnoo, were in every respect
models of beauty.

* This passage, which is cited as an almost literal translation from the
original, I found in a small volume entitled 'Circumnavigation of the
Globe, in which volume are several extracts from 'Dalrymple's Historical
Collections'. The last-mentioned work I have never seen, but it is said
to contain a very correct English version of great part of the learned
Doctor Christoval Suaverde da Figueroa's History of Mendanna's Voyage,
published at Madrid, A.D. 1613.

Some of the natives present at the Feast of Calabashes had displayed a
few articles of European dress; disposed however, about their persons
after their own peculiar fashion. Among these I perceived two pieces of
cotton-cloth which poor Toby and myself had bestowed upon our youthful
guides the afternoon we entered the valley. They were evidently reserved
for gala days; and during those of the festival they rendered the young
islanders who wore them very distinguished characters. The small number
who were similarly adorned, and the great value they appeared to place
upon the most common and most trivial articles, furnished ample evidence
of the very restricted intercourse they held with vessels touching at
the island. A few cotton handkerchiefs, of a gay pattern, tied about the
neck, and suffered to fall over the shoulder; strips o