r_ of our skin, was the greatest source of their admiration, and
we were frequently importuned to adopt their dress.

On the 28th Feb. early in the morning the whole village appeared to be
in motion. All the adults commenced _ornamenting_ themselves, which to
me appeared to render them _hideous_. After greasing themselves with
cocoanut oil, and hanging about them numerous strings of beads, they
set off, taking us with them, to a flat piece of ground, about half a
mile distant, where we found collected a great number, and all
ornamented in the same fantastic manner.--Knowing that many of the
natives inhabiting Islands in the Pacific Ocean, are cannibals, we
were not without our fears that we had been preserved to grace a
feast! Our apprehensions, however, were dissipated, when we saw them
commence a dance, of which we will endeavour to give the reader some
idea. The only musical instrument we saw, was a rude kind of drum; and
the choristers were all females, say twenty or thirty, each having one
of these drums. The music commenced with the women, who began upon a
very low key, gradually raising the notes, while the natives
accompanied them with the most uncouth gesticulations and grimaces.
The precision with which about three hundred of these people, all
dancing at a time, regulated their movements, was truly astonishing;
while the yelling of the whole body, each trying to exceed the other,
rendered the scene to us, not only novel, but terrifick.

The dance ended near night, and those natives who lived in a distant
part of the Island, after gratifying their curiosity by gazing upon
us, and even _feeling of our skins_, took their departure.

After our return to the village, we cooked some meat upon the coals,
and with some bread, made a hearty meal. One source of regret to us,
was, that the natives began to like our bread, which heretofore they
had scarcely dared to taste; and particularly the woman whom I called
mistress, ate, to use a sea phrase, her _full allowance_.

The natives expressed great dislike at our conversing together, and
prohibited our reading, as much as possible. We never could make them
comprehend that the book conveyed ideas to us, expressed in our own
language.

Whether from a fear that we might concert some plan of escape, or that
we might be the means of doing them some injury while together, we
know not;--but about the first of April, we discovered that we were
about to be separated! The read