e chief village, called Mama. As the people are much
addicted to trade with all the neighbouring islands, I was in hopes that
we might here possibly gain the information I required. We were much
amused with the costume in which the people assembled to attend church
the day we were there. Some wore old-fashioned coats with wide sleeves
and broad skirts; others garments of the same description, but of a more
modern cut; while the remainder were clad in long black kaligas, or
loose coats, the usual dress of native Christians. The costume of those
who were clad in the old-fashioned coats, was completed by short
breeches, shoes with enormous buckles, and three-cornered hats. Many of
the women wore old Dutch chintz gowns, or jackets, the costume of the
remainder being the native sarong and kabya. The heads of the women
were adorned with ornaments of gold and precious stones; but the men
wore their long hair simply confined with a tortoise-shell comb. They
appeared a very simple-minded, amiable people. I was much struck by the
course of instruction adopted at the schools, where all the children
under ten years of age assembled to learn the rudiments of Christianity,
and reading and writing. Yet these people, we in England should call
savages. Can we boast that the children of our poor are so well cared
for?

We could here gain no intelligence of the _Emu_, so we again sailed. At
another island we touched at, called Lette, we found one portion of the
aborigines converted to Christianity; and the remainder, who were still
heathens, serving them willingly as persons of a superior order. The
people are tall and well formed, with light brown complexions, pointed
noses, high foreheads, hair black, though rendered yellow by rubbing in
a composition of lime. It is confined by a bamboo comb. The men wear
no other clothing than a piece of cloth made from the bark of a tree
wrapped round the waist. The women, in addition, wear a sort of kabya,
or short gown, open in front. They worship a wooden idol in human
shape, placed on a square heap of stones, under a large tree in the
centre of the village. We were visited by a number of chiefs, who came
in lightly constructed prahus, with high stems and sterns, and awnings
of palm-leaves raised over them. One of their chiefs was clad after the
fashion of the seventeenth century. He wore a large wig, a
three-cornered hat, short breeches, with large knee-buckles, and a coat
with