C H A P . probabilities of infection, with simple diet, cleanly habits, moderate
exercise, and a cheerful disposition, it was to be expected that early
mortality would be of rare occurrence; and accordingly we find in
this small community that the difference in the proportion of deaths
to births is more striking than even in the most healthy European
nations.
Dec.
182.').
CHAPTER V.
Visit Oeno Island—Description of it—Loss of a Boatand one Seaman—Narrow Escape of the
Crew—Crescent Island—Gambier Gronpe—Visited by Natives on Rafts—Discover a
Passage into the Lagoon—Ship enters—Interview with the Natives—Anchor off two
Streams of Water—Visited by the Natives—Theft—Communication with them suspended—
Morai—Manner of preserving the Dead—Idols and Places of Worship.
As soon as Adams and his party left ns we spread every sail in the
prosecution of onr voyage, and to increase onr distance from a climate
in which we had scarcely had the decks dry for sixteen days; but the
winds were so light and unfavourable, that on the following morning
Pitcairn Island was still in sight. The weather was hazy and moist, but
the island was overhung with dense clouds, which the high lands seemed
to attract, leaving no doubt with us of a continuation of the weather
we had experienced while there. At night there was continued lightning
in this direction. Several birds of the pelican tribe (pdicaims
kucocephalm) settled upon the masts and allowed themselves to be
taken by the seamen.
About ninety miles to the northward of Pitcairn Island there is a
coral formation, which has been named Oeno Island, after a whale-ship,
whose master supposed it had not before been seen ; but the discovery
belongs to Captain Henderson of the Hercules. It is so low that it can
be discerned at only a very few miles distance, and is highly dangerous
to a night navigation. As this was the next island I intended to visit,
every effort was made to get up to i t ; and at one o'clock in the afternoon
of the 23d December it was seen a little to leeward of us. We
hiid not time to examine it that evening, but on the following morning
we passed close to the reefs in the ship, in order to overlook the lagoon
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