Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

1835. NAVIGATORS — FRIENDLY— FEEJEE. 559 Before arriving at New Zealand I will add a very brief remark or two about the Navigators, the Friendly, and the Feejee Islands. At the first mentioned, where De Langle and Lamanon were massacred, there is now a prosperous mission established by the exertions of the London Missionary Society, and I hear that a large proportion of the islanders are no longer blood-thirsty savages. At the Friendly Isles much opposition had been encountered, chiefly in consequence of former hostilities brought on by a runaway convict, who excited the natives to murder the first missionaries who went there : and the prejudices then caused are scarcely yet removed. Mariner's account of the Tonga, or Friendly Islands, is consider- ed by English residents at Otaheite, to be a very accurate one,* and is full of interesting information. I obtained a few notices of the Feejee group from the owner of a schooner that was lost there ; and as they are comparatively little known, my mite may as well be contributed in this place to the general fund. The whole group of islands called Feejee, or Fidji, by Euro- peans, but of which the native name is, I believe, Navihi — is of very dangerous navigation : not only on account of coral reefs, scarcely hidden by a few feet of water, but because the natives are ferocious and treacherous cannibals. My informant-f* said, that the master of his schooner J (who was long detained a prisoner among them, his life being spared in hopes of ob- taining a large ransom), was an unwilling participator in a cannibal feast on some prisoners of war, taken in an attack on a neighbouring island. That they have an idea of the supe- riority of white men may be inferred from a message sent pre- vious to this battle, saying, " We shall kill and eat you all — we have seven white men to fight for us !" Although many un- fortunate seamen have fallen victims to the thoroughly savage Feejee Islanders, a few whites have not only escaped death, • Among a variety of very curious facts mentioned by Mariner, one may be noticed here, because I shall have to refer to it in a future page. I mean the rat shooting practised by the chiefs as an amusement. t Mr. Green, of Valparaiso. { ' The Terrible ;' Clark, master.