On the S.W. side
of the island is a wooded, picturesque valley, surrounded by lofty
mountains, and containing a small but well-inhabited village. Two
singularly isolated basaltic rocks, of some elevation, partially bare,
but at parts covered by shrubs, rise from about the centre of the
valley. When close in, two canoes came off containing several natives,
who readily came on board; two of them had been in an English whaler,
(which ships occasionally touched at the island for provisions, &c.) and
addressed us in tolerable English. They were well formed, muscular men,
with fine and expressive features, of the Asiatic race, in colour of a
light copper; they wore the hair long, and stained of a light brown
colour; they were tattooed only on the breast, which had been executed
in a neat vandyked form; the ears, as also the septum narium, were
perforated, and in them were worn tortoiseshell rings; around the waist
was worn a narrow piece of native cloth (died either of a dark red or
yellow colour), or a small narrow mat formed from the bark of a tree,
and of fine texture; some of these had neatly-worked dark red borders,
apparently done with the fibres of some dyed bark.
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