tives came on board, and saw the fish hanging up, they expressed their abhorrence of it, as unfit for food; but none had done so when the fish was bought. In other respects, these people were as strictly honest as the natives of Mallicollo.
On the 8th, Tea-booma sent a few yams and sugar-canes as a present; and the Captain, in return, sent him a pair of dogs, male and female. When the chief received them from the officer on shore, he was lost in an extasy of joy, and could hardly believe his ears and eyes. Next day, an albino was seen among those who came alongside the ship: the whiteness of his skin was evidently the effect of disease or accident. The inhabitants, in general, are stout, and well made, and several of them tall. A few were found who measured 6 feet 4 inches. In one of their excursions, the naturalists met with the grave of a chief: it was like a large mole-hill, decorated with spears, darts, paddles, &c., all stuck upright in the ground round about it. Many new plants, and beautiful birds, were found by Mr. Forster and his party.
Early on the 9th, the Captain sent Lieutenant Pickersgill and Mr. Gilbert, with the launch and cutter, to explore the west coast. They visited Balabea, where Teabi and his people received them courteously. When the natives crowded around them, they drew a line on the ground, and signified that the people must not pass it. To this restriction they submitted, and one of them, rather humorously, turned it soon after to his own advantage; for, having some cocoa-nuts which one of the men wanted to buy, and which he was unwilling to part with, he retired to another part of the sand, and sitting down, made a circle round
