Page:Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization.djvu/240

230 sailed eastward along the north coast of New Guinea, and having gone four or five degrees south of the Line, crossed again to the north, and discovered an island of tattooed people, which he called Isla de los Pintados, or the isle of painted men. Beyond this island, in 10° or 12° N., they found many small smooth ones together, full of palms and grass, and these they called Los Jardines, "The Gardens." The natives had no domestic animals, they were dressed in a white cloth of grass, ate coco-nuts for bread, and raw fish, which they took in the praus which they made out of drift pine-wood with their tools of shell. They stood in terror of fire, for they had never seen it (espantaram se do fogo, porque nunca o virarn). I am not aware that these islands have been identified, but they would seem to be somewhere about the Radack or Chatham group. The account of the natives, to judge by its general consistency with what is known of the common eating of raw vegetables and fish in other coral islands in the Pacific, seems to have come mostly or altogether from an eye-witness, and the statement that they had no fire is not to be summarily set down as a mere fiction, like that about the Canary Islands. It has fortunately happened, however, that a very similar story has come up in our own time about another coral island, under circumstances which allow of its accuracy being tested. When the United States' Exploring Expedition, under Commodore Wilkes, visited Fakaafo or Bowditch Island in 1841, they made the following remarks:—"There was no sign of places for cooking, nor any appearance of fire, and it is believed that all their provisions are eaten raw. What strengthened this opinion, was the alarm the natives felt when they saw the sparks emanating from the flint and steel, and the emission of smoke from the mouths of those who were smoking cigars."

Curiously enough, within the very work which contains these remarks, particulars are given which show that fire was in reality a familiar thing in the island. Mr. Hale, the ethnographer to the expedition, not only mentions the appearance of