Rapa Iti, or Little Rapa. An implement of stone, a mere long pebble with a chisel-edge, is believed to have been the chief tool used in producing these wonderful statues; but it is almost incredible that with such imperfect appliances, works so gigantic could have been executed, literally by hundreds, in an island of such insignificant dimensions, and so completely isolated from the rest of the world. This difficulty is so great that some writers have suggested an ancient civilisation over the Pacific as the only means of overcoming it. The forces of distant groups of islands might then have been combined for the execution of these remarkable works in a remote island, which may perhaps have been the sanctuary of their religion, and the supposed dwelling-place of their gods.

At present Easter Island is the great mystery of the Pacific, and the more we know of its strange antiquities, the less we are able to understand them.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

THE SOLOMON ISLANDS.

VERY little is known of the Solomon Group of islands, discovered by Mendana in 1668 (40° 36′ S. lat., and 151° 55′ E., and 162° 30′ E. long.), and that little is not, as a rule, of a pleasant character. They are inhabited by dark-skinned, woolly-headed Papuans, and though the Fiji Governmentconducted labour-vessels are breaking the ice and demonstrating that every white man is not necessarily a man-stealer, it has been for years past a terra incognita to those profoundly versed in other islands of the Southern Seas.

The group consists of a double row of islands extending nearly 700 miles in a north-west and south-east direction. The four northern islands vary from 120 to 150 miles in length and from 20 to 30 miles in width. The northern point of Bougainville Island (10,171 feet high), the largest, is 130 miles east of the southern point of New Ireland, and adjacent are Choiseul, Ysabel, and Malayta Islands, the straits between them varying from 15 to 50 miles in width. Parallel with these and some 30 miles distant are the islands of New Georgia, Guadalcanar (8006 feet high), and St. Christoval (4100 feet high), the first opposite Choiseul Island, the last extending nearly 100 miles farther to the south-east than Malayta Island.

The whole group is volcanic, and there is an active volcano in Guadalcanar Island.

Labourers are to be got in fair numbers from the Solomons, and a good number of them are now working well for white settlers in Fiji. I had for some time a Solomon Island servant, and found him willing and obedient. One thing grievously offended him, and that was to tell him that if he was sent home 'his friends would cook and eat him.' The Solomon Islanders at present are still cannibals, but this 'boy's' indignation at the idea of his being eaten, shows that even the Solomons are rapidly going ahead.

A few white traders dwell in the group, and manage to dwell in peace with the natives; but the progress of the Solomons is inseparably bound up with the labour-trade of the Fiji Islands. Men returning from a three-year term of service, well treated, and well fed, and fairly paid by white men, will in the end act as first-class missionaries of civilisation among these people, and prepare the way for better things.

The Solomon Islanders are skilful in carving and canoe

building, and most of their implements are inlaid with motherof-pearl. Although strictly of the Papuan race, they are crossed with brown Polynesian blood, and most of their rites and ceremonies are like those I have described in dealing with Fiji and Tonga. In one of their islands, however, the dead are all buried at sea. At St. Christoval the corpse is kept till the flesh drops from the bones, the skull and finger-bones are then retained as heirlooms, and the remainder of the body exposed on a high platform. Infanticide is common, women are killed on the death of a chief, and the wife or sister of a deceased man first stupefies herself, and then commits suicide by hanging. A kind of suttee, evidently derived from the East, prevails, or has prevailed, in most parts of Polynesia.

The formation of St. Christoval is uniform throughout; it is a long chain of lofty mountains, with gentle slopes towards the sea; the shores are low, and are often furnished with a belt of mangroves, the edge of which is washed by the tide. An active and vigorous vegetation, of the usual tropical description, covers every inch of the soil, which in fact is hardly to be seen. Large rivers descend from the hills, and the climate is good. My brother is one of the few Europeans that I know who have resided in the Solomon Islands, and he fairly astonished me with his account of the fertility of the soil of other islands in the group which I did not visit, and their capacity for producing agricultural wealth of all sorts.

The ivory or Corrossos-nut is to be found in abundance, while betel-nuts are also plentiful. The Solomons seem to be a favourite resort for those extraordinary-looking birds, the hornbills, which grow to a size exceeding that of the domestic fowl, while their enormous bill resembles that of the grossbeak of South America.

There are orchids peculiar to the group, and a large tree

grows there (I have forgotten the name) whose leaves are edible and much resemble those of the domestic cabbage, which in most of the coral islands will not grow. A great future lies before the Solomons. I believe that a few years more will find this dreaded group well on the high road of civilisation; but it wants the helping hands of British justice and British gold. The success of the Crown Colony of Fiji is in a small way demonstrating what may be done by means of the former; the latter would in time assuredly acquire rich interest.

CHAPTER XL.

THE SOCIETY ISLANDS.

FRANCE and England are the only two European powers that possess Polynesian Colonies, Fiji being under the Union Jack, while the islands of Tahiti and New Caledonia and the Tuamotus, are recognised possessions of the French Republic; and a sort of protectorate is claimed by it over the Marquesas and the Austral Islands.

The Society Islands are eleven in number, and form a chain running from north-west to south-east, and are divided by a wide channel into the Leeward and Windward Groups. The names of the principal islands in the Leeward division are: Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa, and Borabora, which it should be noted have maintained their independence, the two splendid islands first named having had it secured to them by virtue of a treaty, of which the terms were guaranteed by England in or about the year 1847. In view of the very recent formal annexation of Tahiti to France, this fact of the guaranteed

independence of the Leeward Group should not be lost sight of.

The Windward Group includes Eimeo or Moorea, Maitea, and Tahiti, which is centrally situated. The area of the group may be set down at 650 square miles, and the population at some 15,000 souls.

The island of Tahiti itself has about 600 square miles, and 9745 inhabitants. It is very mountainous, and a series of coast-ranges form a kind of amphitheatre around the central peaks. The climate is delightfully healthy, vegetation of the richest order flourishes in true tropical profusion. The romantic valleys leading to the interior, with the noble outlines of Mount Orohena 7340 feet high, are gems of Pacific scenery, and are described in rapturous terms by those who have seen a little of other groups outside the Society Islands.

Civilisation of the 'spiritual' order has done its fatal work in Tahiti as in other parts of 'Coral Lands;' and the natives are not only steadily diminishing in numbers, but are by no means such physical perfections as they are described by Cook and early visitors to the group. As it is, they are fine specimens of the brown-coloured or Sawaiori race of Polynesians, with slightly protruding lips, beautiful teeth, black hair (generally curly), and a little beard.

As the policy of the French Government has never been to encourage the natives in habits of agricultural industry, by showing them how to turn the resources of their land to account, they do little else than grow sufficient for their daily wants, so at present any organised attempt of capitalists to colonise the rich lands of Tahiti would have to rely on Polynesian or coolie labour, as was found necessary by the Messrs. Stewart when they established their estate at Atimano, and which is on the south side of the island. I have heard that