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192 A P P E N D I X .
quedando legada su observancia bajo responsabilidad á los funcionarios
á quienes estas letras se presentasen. Dado en la Casa del Supremo
Gabierno en Lima à 18 de Enero de 1836. 17» de la Independencia :
15° de la República.
El Ministro Secretario Grál.
MARIANO DE SIEHKA.
No. 34.
That multitude of islands, of which the native name is Paamuto.
to us more commonly known as the Dangerous Archipelago of the
Low Islands, may he said to lie strewed between the parallels of
thirteen and twenty-five south, and the meridians of 120 and 1.50
west: though stricter limits would be 13° and 22° S. ; 135 and 150
west; because some of those south of 22, and east of 135, are high
islands, and but rarely have communication with the groups in a
lower latitude.
Easter Island, though without the boundaries specified, is but an
outpost, as it were, of the Dangerous Archipelago ; and, no doubt,
was first peopled from that extensive region of (generally speaking)
low coral islands. The high, or rather hilly exceptions, such as
Gambler, Osnaburgh, Pitcairn, Easter, &c. are few, in comparison
with the seventy or eighty groups of islets which surround lagoons,
besides many mere dry reefs.
By far the larger number of the lagoon islands have at least one
harbour in each cluster accessible to shipping; and a considerable
trade has been carried on with the natives for peail oyster-shells.
What the number of inhabitants may be, who are dispersed
through the Archipelago, it is exceedingly difficult to estimate, for
two reasons : we know very little of them ; and they are migratory.
From the little I have learned on the subject, I think they cannot
be less than ten thousand, nor more than thirty thousand, exclusive
of children.
Fish, and sheU-fish, hogs, and cocoa-nuts, aie the principal subsistence
of the Low islanders; but the natives of Gamhier, and a few
other hilly islands, have plenty of vegetable foid in addition.
Those Paamuto islands wliich are not very remote from Otaheite,
affect to receive laws from her sovereign : they have, however, no resident
authority among them, except the head of each family.
A P P E N D I X . 193
The language of these islanders differs from that of the Otaheitans
so much that they do not easily understand each other:
yet I believe that both are radically the same. Taata is man, at
Otalieite; in Paamuto, Tanaka; which is almost the same as Kanaka,
the word for man in the Sandwich Islands; and not very different
from Tangata in New Zealand. Some of the Low islanders
say their ancestors came from the south-eastern islands; others say
from the Marquesas; again there are some who assert that their
forefathers arrived from islands to the westward: so that no reliance
can be placed upon the little yet kno-rni of their origin. There
is, however, reason for supposing that the earlier inhabitants were
not of one family, or tribe ; but that they were emigrants from more
than one quarter.
In most of the entrances to harbours in the lagoon islands, there
is a strong current of tide, which sets in and out alternately, about
six hours each way. The tide rises nearly tivo, or at most three,
feet. It is high water at about one, on the days of full and new moon,
among the western groups of islands, and from half an hour to an
hour later among those which he towards the south-east. The cur^
rents wliich do not appear to be caused by tide ai-e irregular; and,
as yet, too little is known of their usual direction to enable any one
to say more than that during settled weather, and a steady trade
wind (south-easterly), the surface waters in general move westward
from five to twenty miles a day ; and that in the rainy season, from
October to March, when westerly winds, squalls, and rain are frequent,
the currents vary most, and occasionally set eastward, at the
rate of from half a mile to two mUes an hour.
Numerous instances are upon record of canoes being drifted out of
their course—even several hundred miles—by currents and westerly
winds : few narratives of voyages in the Pacific are without a notice
of them : and they materially assist in explaining how remote, and
perhaps very small, islands, may have been first peopled from the
west: against the direction of the generally prevalent wind.
No. 35.
The BRITISH RESINKNT at New Zealand, to His BRITANNI C MAJ
E S T Y ' S SUBJECTS, who are Residing or Trading in New Zealand.
The British Resident annoimces to his countrymen that he has
received from a person who styles himself " Charles, Baron de
• Í Í