them, acted as spokesman. He was called Mannini, or rather, out of compliment to his known importance and influence, Mister Mannini, and was known all over California. Through him, the captain offered them fifteen dollars a month, and one month's pay in advance; but it was like throwing pearls before swine, or rather carrying coals to Newcastle. So long as they had money, they would not work for fifty dollars a month, and when their money was gone, they would work for ten.

"What do you do here, Mr Mannini?' said the captain. "Oh, we play cards, get drunk, smoke, do anything we're a mind to.'

"Don't you want to come aboard and work?'

"Aole! aole make make makou i ka hana. Now, got plenty money; no good work. Mamule, money pau—all gone. Ah! very good, work!-maikai, hana hana nui.'

"But you'll spend all your money in this way,' said the captain.

"Aye! me know that. By-'em-by money pau-all gone; then Kanaka work plenty.'

"This was a hopeless case, and the captain left them, to wait patiently until their money was gone."

An ancient islander at San Diego, whose front teeth had been knocked out by his parents by way of lamentations over the death of King Kamehameha I, caused much amusement. "We used to tell him ", Dana says, "that he ate Captain Cook, and lost his teeth in that way."

"Aole, no! Me no eat Captain Cook. Me pikinini, small, so high, no more! My father see Captain Cook; me, no.' "Yes, your people eat Captain Cook.'

"No, New Zealand Kanaka eat white man; Sandwich island Kanaka, no. Sandwich island Kanaka ua like pu na haole, all'e same a' you.'

"Their customs and manner of treating one another, show a simple, primitive generosity, which is truly delightful; and which is often a reproach to our own people. Whatever one has they all have. Money, food, clothes, they share wth one another; even to the last piece of tobacco to put in their pipes. I once heard old Mr Bingham say, with the highest indignation, to a Yankee trader who was trying to persuade him to keep his money to himself, 'No! Me no all'e same a' you!—

Suppose one got money, all got money. You, suppose one got money-lock him up in chest. No good. Kanaka all'e same a' one!' This principle they carry so far that none of them will eat any thing in sight of others without offering it all round. I have seen one of them break a biscuit, which had been given him, into five parts, at a time when I knew he was on a very short allowance, as there was but little to eat on the beach."

When Mr Dana returned to Harvard to complete his course, let us hope his history marks were raised, and that he in due time learned that Francis Drake never entered San Francisco bay, that Cortés never was in that section of the world, and that no Jesuits, nor any other order of friars except the Franciscans, ever established a mission in Alta California. It is well to travel, to observe, to learn, to report, but Cambridge had better schoolmasters than California in the year 1835, and no doubt Mr Dana made use of them after the publication of his matchless little book.

The voyages of the Russians from north-eastern Asia began by order of the tsar Alexis in 1648, in seven kotches, or small decked boats, sent in search of the mouth of the Anadir, and of which Simon Deshnef gives an account. The Kurile islands were first seen from this direction in 1706, and ten years later was made the first voyage from Okhotsk to Kamchatka, an account of which is given in Müller's Voyages. In 1727 Vitus Bering coasted northward from Kamchatka far enough to satisfy himself that Asia and America were not united. Other expeditions surveyed the coast about this time, by land and sea, in which the shore of America was described, and the strait mapped by Mikhoil Goozdef.

The voyage of Vitus Bering, resulting in the discovery and occupation by Russians of northwesternmost America, was made by order of the empress Elizabeth in 1740. Following the swarming of the promyshleniki over the islands and main land of Alaska, the more immediate result of Bering's explorations were several Russian voyages of discovery, among them the expedition of Korovin in 1762, from the mouth of the Kamchatka river to Umnak island; the voyage of Glottof to Unalaska and Kadiak; the voyage of Lieutenant Synd in 1764; the government expedition to Unalaska under Krenitzin, and the surveying expedition of Zaïkof to Copper

island, not to mention the adventures of Benyovski, Delarof, Pribylof, Shelikof, and others, mostly for furs.

Among the European powers first officially to visit and observe what Russia was doing in this quarter was Spain, Juan Perez appearing in the ship Santiago, under instructions from Revilla Gigedo in 1774, the Sonora, Bodega y Cuadra commander, coming to Alaska the following year. England put in an appearance in the person of Captain Cook, and after him came the Frenchmen La Perouse and Marchand; more Englishmen, as Meares and Portlock and Dixon; other Spaniards-Martinez, Haro, and Fidalgo with other scientific and commercial expeditions like those of Vancouver and Billings, not to mention the colonization, mission, and fur-hunting efforts of the Russians themselves in the persons of Shelikof, Baranof, and Konovalof. Meanwhile were accomplished the organization of the Russian American Fur company, the founding of Sitka, the settlement of Yakutat bay, and the later visits of Krusenstern, Lisiansky, Rezanof, Golovin, Astor's ship Enterprise, and Kotzebue.

Attention has been frequently drawn to the facility with which railway and telegraph lines can be carried across Bering strait. An expedition was sent out in 1865 under the auspices of the Union Telegraph company for the survey and construction of a telegraph line to Sitka, and thence to the continent of Asia. After two years of effort and an expenditure of $3,000,000 the enterprise was abandoned, chiefly owing to the successful laying of the Atlantic cable in the meantime.

CHAPTER XXII

SOUTH SEA ISLES

THE islands of the south Pacific are many, and have many names, both as groups and individually, though some have none at all, and indeed are not worth naming. There are Micronesia, or little islands'; Polynesia, or many islands'; Melanesia, another many islands'; and Gilbert and Philip, and Caroline and Marianne, and Solomon, and the rest, not to mention those having true names, as Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, and Tokelan.

Speaking generally, the terms Polynesia, and South sea islands, signify those innumerable clusters lying mostly south of the equator, and altogether south of north latitude 10°. Conspicuous among them are Tahiti, called by Captain Cook Otaheite, 108 miles in circumference, in the form of two peninsulas united by an isthmus, with a population early in the century of 10,000; the Society islands, population 20,000; the Marquesas, Navigators, Friendly, Fiji, and other groups. The Fiji islands are a valuable permanent possession of England's, favorable to extensive plantations of the most varied tropical products, which like those of Mauritius find a ready market at Australia and New Zealand, as well as in more distant parts. The South sea isles are many of them of coral, and round each coral isle is a coral reef, one or two miles distant from the shore, against which the waves perpetually play, rising into an aqueous wall ten or fifteen feet above the reef, and forming a most beautiful border. Within the circle the water is still and transparent, so that the bottom, paved with coral of every shape and hue, with the sportive fishes, is plainly visible. In most cases there is a gateway through which ships may enter the sparkling arena, and approach the island. The islands are overspread for the most part with a rich soil, with high mountains covered with verdure, and luxu

riant valleys equal to any Persian paradise. The air is hot and humid, enervating to Europeans but satisfying to the natives. Whirlwinds, hurricanes, and other destructive storms are frequent, uprooting trees and demolishing dwellings; but trees quickly grow again, and houses if sufficiently humble may be reconstructed. The rainy season is from December to March, during which the water and lightning play mad pranks.

Vegetable life abounds. The trees are many, some of them remarkable for size, beauty, or usefulness. The foliage of the undergrowth is luxuriant and mostly evergreen, while fruits and flowers are everywhere. A fine timber tree is the apape, rearing to a height of fifty feet a straight and branchless trunk of salmon-color, two or three feet thick, and crowned by a tuft of pale green leaves. The tamanu is more like mahogany; the hutu resembles the magnolia; while the aoa is not unlike the banian. These more particularly on the lower levels. In the mountains the candle-nut is conspicuous, its white leaves lighting up the dark rich foliage of the forest. It is the nut, however, and not the leaves which constitutes the candle, being about the size of a walnut, and with the shell removed and strung on the rib of a cocoanut leaf, is used as a candle. A fine lamp-black is also made from the nut, which is used in painting canoes.

Several foreign plants, fruit-trees and others, were introduced to these islands by usurpers and navigators. Thus to the Spaniards, Portuguese, and Dutch the islands are indebted for the pineapple, fig, citron, and coffee plants, while Cook, Bligh, and Vancouver brought the vine, the orange, lime, and others. Native plants are many and prolific, as the vi, a bright yellow plum; the mape, a kind of chestnut. From the auti, or paper mulberry, is made cloth; the taro is an esculent root, prepared for eating like the bread-fruit; the yam is indigenous; sweet-potatoes are carefully cultivated; the banana is highly prized, as is also arrow-root, though the care of the latter involves too much labor for the indolent natives.

To the South sea islander the bread-fruit tree is the most useful, as indeed it is among the most beautiful of plants. Its height is usually fifty or sixty feet, with a trunk two or three feet in diameter; leaves of glossy dark green, indented like a fig-leaf, and more than a foot long; fruit oval, and six