Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/169

 CHAPTER X.

Fiji Islands were discovered by Tasman in 1643. There are about one hundred and fifty islands in the group, sixty of which were then inhabited by one hundred  and fifty thousand cannibals.

During the forenoon of May 8th we came to anchor in the harbor of Levuka, island of Ovolau. Thousands of natives lined the beach, watching our manoeuvres with  their usual curiosity. When all hands, dressed in their white frocks and trousers, mounted the rigging, ran up  aloft, and lay out on the yards to furl the sails, the wondering natives screeched like so many hyenas, and performed such antics that we could hardly believe they  belonged to the human race.

We soon had a visit from Tanoa, the king of these cannibal islands, with several of his chiefs, and an  American sailor by the name of David Whippy, who had  run away from his ship on account of ill treatment, and  had lived on this island eighteen years, acting as interpreter for the king. They were nearly naked, after the native fashion. The king wore a scanty maro about his loins, with the long ends hanging down in front and  behind. He had a large turban of white tapa cloth upon his head, and a mother-of-pearl shell as large as a