ee with them.

[239] E. Renan, _Histoire du peuple d'Israel_, ii. 505.

CHAPTER III

THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE SAMOANS

Sec. 1. _The Samoan Islands_

About three hundred and fifty or four hundred miles nearly due north of
Tonga lies Samoa, a group of islands situated between 13 deg. 30' and 14 deg.
30' South latitude and between 168 deg. and 173 deg. West longitude. The native
name of the group is Samoa, which has this singularity, that it is
apparently the only name that designates a group of islands in the
Pacific; native names for all the other groups are wanting, though each
particular island has its own individual name. Samoa is also known to
Europeans as the Navigators' Islands, a name bestowed on them by the
French explorer De Bougainville, who visited the group in 1768. The
three most easterly islands were discovered in 1722 by Jacob Roggewein,
a Dutch navigator, but he appears not to have sighted the principal
islands of the group, which lie a good deal farther to the westward.
There is no record of any visit paid by a European vessel to the islands
in the interval between the visits of Roggewein and De Bougainville. The
whole archipelago was not explored till 1787, when the French navigator
La Perouse determined the position of all the islands.[1]

[1] Ch. Wilkes, _Narrative of the United States
Exploring Expedition_, New Edition (New York, 1851), ii. 117; J.
B. Stair, _Old Samoa_ (London, 1897), pp. 21 _sq._; F. H. H.
Guillemard, _Australasia_, ii. (London, 1894) p. 500; G. Brown,
_Melanesians and Polynesians_ (London, 1910), pp. 1, 360.

The islands are disposed in a line running from west to east. The most
westerly, Savaii, is also the largest, measuring about forty miles in
length. Next follow two small, but important islands, Apolima and
Manona. Then about three miles to the east of Manona comes Upolu, the
second of the islands in size, but the first in importance, whether we
regard population, harbours, or the extent of soil available for
cultivation. The channel which divides Upolu from Savaii is from fifteen
to twenty miles broad. About forty miles to the east, or rather
south-east, of Upolu lies the island of Tutuila, with the fine and
almost landlocked harbour of Pangopango. It was in this island that the
French navigator La Perouse lost his second in command and twelve men in
a fierce encounter with the natives. The place where the fight took
place