of the islands, and who on one of his plantations employs forty Chinamen, and about sixty natives of the Gilbert Islands-for here, as in all other places where white men endeavour to cultivate the land, they find it necessary to employ labourers imported from other isles, as they cannot extract the same amount of work from men living on their native soil.

Hitherto only about a hundred Chinese, and as many Gilbert Islanders, have been imported, and cotton is the only article grown expressly for exportation. Of course where cocoa-palms are so abundant, a considerable amount of coppra,1 is to be obtained; but the natives have unfortunately been instructed in the art of making palm-rum, and trees which have been tapped for this purpose rarely recover their full strength as nut-producers. Happily, in this matter, self-interest leads the colonists to support the missionaries in their endeavours to dissuade the people from thus misusing the palm-trees; but, on the other hand, foreign traders are too ready to supply more fiery stimulants, and drunkenness prevails to a grievous extent.

Nearly all these isles supply one indigenous article of commerce —namely, a kind of fungus, which is much appreciated in China. It looks like dried-up leather, but is not unpalatable when stewed or served in soup. A considerable amount of this is obtained in most of the Marquesan valleys.

Of colonists, properly so called, there are very few. About fifty white men are scattered throughout the isles. Of these, some trade; others cultivate the soil; while a few wander aimlessly from bay to bay, island to island, living upon whatever the natives like to give them they are either too lazy to work, or too dishonest to find employment. These men include waifs from all nationalities, including Scotch, English, Irish, American, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. Although a French colony, there are only three or four French subjects who can be classed as colonists; but here, as elsewhere, the frugal and diligent Chinaman seems likely to take firm root.

Nukuheva bay (where the Seignelay is probably now anchored) 1 Sun-dried nut, exported for the manufacture of oil.

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is described as surpassingly lovely. It is a perfect harbour, with very deep water, and forms a horse-shoe about nine miles in circumference, ending in two lofty and abrupt headlands. The entrance is very narrow, barely half a mile across, and is guarded on each side by small conical isles, rising about 500 feet above the sea. All round the harbour the greenest of low hills swell in gentle undulations, while behind these rise majestic mountains, whence steep rocky ridges trend seaward, dividing the vast amphitheatre into several distinct valleys, which, narrowing as they ascend, become deep, romantic glens. Here and there snowy cascades, gleaming through the rich verdure, tell where the precipitous crags close in the valleys. Some of these barrier-cliffs rise perpendicularly, to a height of perhaps 1500 feet. So rich is the growth of parasitical plants, which cling to every crevice, that these mighty rugged crags appear only to be green walls surmounted by black basaltic pinnacles and cones, beyond which tower the blue peaks of some of the higher ridges, which occupy the whole centre of the isle, rising to a height of about 4000 feet.

There are in these sheltered vales many old men who, in all their long lives, have never set foot out of their own little boundary. Those vine-clad cliffs have hemmed them in, and the mountain wilderness beyond has offered no inducement to roving. No fruit, no game; only the certainty of excessive toil for no reward, and the possibility of wandering unintentionally within the territory of some other tribe, ever on the watch to slay any imprudent straggler.

The lives of the women have been even more circumscribed, owing to an extraordinary law of tabu, which prohibits a female from setting foot in a canoe; consequently her farthest voyage is regulated by her powers of swimming; and so, when a foreign vessel arrives in port, and the Marquesan nymphs wish to inspect it more closely, they can only do so by swimming. Small wonder if sailors, perceiving those fair-skinned beauties, with their tresses of long black hair floating around them, suppose their visitors to be a company of mermaids! From all accounts many of these girls are really beautiful. In stature they are somewhat diminu

tive, whereas the men average over six feet. As in Tahiti and other tropical climates, the constitution ripens at a very early age, so that mere children may be seen playing with their own babies instead of dolls. Happily the responsibilities of housekeeping do not weigh heavily in these isles, where nature is so generous, the climate so genial, and food so abundant.

I am told that the bread-fruit tree in particular flourishes in the Marquesas to an extent unknown elsewhere, and grows to an enormous size the ripe fruit, either freshly gathered or in its manufactured form of poi, forming the staple food of the isles. The Marquesans have the same love of flowers as their neighbours, and the girls vie one with another in producing the loveliest garlands, bracelets, and anklets, sometimes of blossoms and leaves intertwined, but more often of single flowers, plucked from their calyx and strung together on a thin fibre of tappa, while snowy buds take the place of pearl ear-rings. The fragrant white blossoms of a large tree are those most in favour.

Some of the older men are Even the face is not spared, a marked triangle, the base sweep

But the permanent adornment is that of tattooing, which the Marquesans have brought to greater perfection than any other South Sea Islanders, except perhaps the Maoris of New Zealand, their very fair skin affording a tempting parchment for the artist's work. The patterns are quaint, and very elaborately worked out in every conceivable variety of curve. thus decorated from head to foot. favourite pattern being a strongly ing across the lips from ear to ear, whence the other lines ascend, crossing both eyelids, to meet on the shaven crown. Other men prefer three broad stripes carried straight across the face, one across the eyes, a second across the nose, a third sweeping across the mouth from ear to ear. A really well-tattooed man is a sort of walking volume of illustrated natural history, so numerous may be the strange creatures of earth, sea, and air, delineated on his muchenduring skin,-birds and butterflies, fishes and crabs, lizards and snakes, octopi and star-fish, flowers and fruits, all traced in delicate blue lines on a most silky, olive-coloured surface. Those who go in for artistic unity of design sometimes have the stem of some

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graceful tree traced along the spine, while the spreading branches extend on either shoulder and droop down the sides, and delicately traced vines twine spirally round arms and legs, birds and insects appearing among the leaves.

I have been told that in one of the beautiful valleys lying farther round the isle than Nukuheva harbour there are Cyclopean remains, somewhat suggestive of the tombs of the Toui Tongas which we saw in the Friendly Isles. Among the dense groves which clothe the base of the mountain lie a series of vast terraces, each about a hundred yards long by twenty wide, and disposed one above another on the mountain-side, like gigantic steps. They are built of oblong blocks of stone, some of which are fifteen feet long by five or six wide. Though perfectly smooth, they bear no mark of any tool, and are laid without cement. Huge trees have taken root in the crevices, and their interlacing boughs now form a dense canopy above this monument of a forgotten race, concerning which the Marquesans themselves have no tradition. So impenetrable is the growth of vines in that green wilderness, that a stranger might pass the spot-nay, actually cross the terraces by the native track-without observing them. It is another of the mysteries of the stone age.

But, on a much smaller scale, there exist in the Marquesas marais similar to those of Tahiti, which have been the temples and the tombs of the present inhabitants ever since they knew their own history, and even these are sufficiently large to make one marvel how they could have been erected by a race ignorant of all mechanical arts, and owning only such rude stone implements. Beside the marais there are a vast number of very old stone foundations, similar to those on which the houses are invariably raised, probably telling of a diminished population. The man who, in the present day, wishes to build himself a bamboo house, can therefore appropriate one of these ready-made foundations, and find the hardest part of his house-building already accomplished.

I cannot learn that there is any trace of active volcanic agency now existing in the Marquesas, though in some districts sulphursprings and mineral waters of various kinds have been found.

On the island of Hiva-oa (or Dominica), in the valley of Ta-oa, about one mile and a half from the beach, and about 300 feet above the level of the sea, there is a hole two inches in diameter, from which, when the sea is rough, there rises a strongly sulphurous steam, accompanied by a loud noise, like the steam-pipe of a steamer. When the water is smooth there is only a slight noise and no steam, only a strong smell of sulphur.

My attention has just been called to an exceedingly interesting letter from the Rev. Titus Coan, which appeared ten years ago in a Hawaiian paper. He had just returned to Honolulu after visiting the Marquesas in the little mission-ship Morning Star. He speaks of the foreign settlement at Taiohae or Nukuheva, as having been allowed to fall into great disrepair. The jetty, the forts, the arsenal, the fine road sweeping round the head of the bay-in fact, all the former works and improvements of the French-are fast going to decay, and only a few hundred natives, in place of the thousands of a few years earlier.

He was most courteously received by the French bishop, who gave him much information about the people, and spoke hopefully of progress made on the north-west isles of the group, though the pagan tribes on the windward isles, especially on Dominica and Magdalena, were still wild and defiant.

Mr Coan then visited the convent, where the French Sisters devote their lives to the training of Marquesan girls. About sixty girls board in the large airy house, their ages ranging from four to sixteen-happy, healthy-looking girls, lovingly taught by gentle, highly educated French ladies, and everything done to make their lives so cheery, that there may be no hankering for heathen pleasures. Of these girls, Mr Coan remarks that he has rarely seen more perfect specimens of physical organisation, brighter faces, or more active minds, than among the Marquesan children, many of whom are beautiful, bright, and blithesome.

A corresponding school for boys is established, under a French secular teacher.

Though the settlement of Taiohae cannot be reckoned as very "go-ahead," it certainly sounds as if it might be a singularly attrac