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- 2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z
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- 2180
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- narrow circles of land surrounding a smooth lagoon, connected by a
single opening with the sea. Some of the lagoons, said to have
subterranean outlets, have no visible ones; the inclosing island, in
such cases, being a complete zone of emerald. Other lagoons still, are
girdled by numbers of small, green islets, very near to each other.
The origin of the entire group is generally ascribed to the coral
insect.
According to some naturalists, this wonderful little creature,
commencing its erections at the bottom of the sea, after the lapse of
centuries, carries them up to the surface, where its labours cease.
Here, the inequalities of the coral collect all floating bodies;
forming, after a time, a soil, in which the seeds carried thither by
birds germinate, and cover the whole with vegetation. Here and there,
all over this archipelago, numberless naked, detached coral formations
are seen, just emerging, as it were from the ocean. These would appear
to be islands in the very process of creation—at any rate, one
involuntarily concludes so, on beholding them.
As far as I know, there are but few bread-fruit trees in any part of
the Pomotu group. In many places the cocoa-nut even does not grow;
though, in others, it largely flourishes. Consequently, some of the
islands are altogether uninhabited; others support but a single family;
and in no place is the population very large. In some respects the
natives resemble the Tahitians: their language, too, is very similar.
The people of the southeasterly clusters—concerning whom, however, but
little is known—have a bad name as cannibals; and for that reason their
hospitality is seldom taxed by the mariner.
Within a few years past, missionaries from the Society group have
settled among the Leeward Islands, where the natives have treated them
kindly. Indeed, nominally, many of these people are now Christians;
and, through the political influence of their instructors, no doubt, a
short time since came tinder the allegiance of Pomaree, the Queen of
Tahiti; with which island they always carried on considerable
intercourse.
The Coral Islands are principally visited by the pearl-shell fishermen,
who arrive in small schooners, carrying not more than five or six men.
For a long while the business was engrossed by Merenhout, the French
Consul at Tahiti, but a Dutchman by birth, who, in one year, is said to
have sent to France fifty thousand dollars’ worth of shells. The
oysters are found in the lagoons, and about the reefs; and, for
half-a-dozen nails a day, or a compensation still less, the natives are
hired to dive after them.
A great deal of cocoa-nut oil is also obtained in various places. Some
of the uninhabited islands are covered with dense groves; and the
ungathered nuts which have fallen year after year, lie upon the ground
in incredible quantities. Two or three men, provided with the necessary
apparatus for trying out the oil, will, in the course of a week or two,
obtain enough to load one of the large sea-canoes.
Cocoa-nut oil is now manufactured in different parts of the South Seas,
and forms no small part of the traffic carried on with trading vessels.
A considerable quantity is annually exported from the Society Islands
to Sydney. It is used in lamps and for machinery, being much cheaper
than the sperm, and, for both purposes, better than the right-whale
oil. They bottle it up in large bamboos, six or eight feet long; and
these form part of the circulating medium of Tahiti.
To return to the ship. The wind dying away, evening came on before we
drew near the island. But we had it in view during the whole afternoon.
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