Polynesian., 1860-12-08
Ghe polpnesiar1.
LECTURES ON MICRONESIA.
REV. l.. Fl. GULICK, VI. ID.
LECTURE Ill.
KUsAIE AND THE KUsAIEN.

the caroline Range. 1t Is basaltc island IN lat.
20 n. and long l63 10 w.
Let US suppose ourselves approaching it for the
first time from the northeast, as our missionary
company did on the Dist of August, 1852. Three
small peaks appear, far apart it is difficult to
resist the impression that more than island is
seen. But gradually as We approach the whole is
united in one. Our winds are light, and we ad-
vance but slowly
Sabbath morning awake with the island only
fifteen or twenty miles distant. The whole land
scape is flooded with hues of deepest green. Such
a perfect garment of vegetation never before
saw thrown over connected hills and vallies. The
| sharply serrated hills, stretching a distance Of
fifteen miles from north to south, some Of which
two thousand feet in height, are romantic
with verdure even up the greater part of the pre-
cpitous faces of the basaltic pinnacles. Unaecus-
toned eyes then were to such tropic scenes,
this apparition of Kusaien romance peaceful
Sabbath morning was like glimpse of the celes-
tial hills.
"Nor painters art poets skill tell
Half the enchantment of that vision bright,
When first your green shores swell upon the sight"
Ere long a whale-boat approaches with a white
man in its stern and six OF eight nearly naked ma
tives seated on its gunwales, keeping admirable
time with long, narrow paddles. They are soon
aboard of US. Their dress is marc woven from
banana fbres. In stature they generally small.
All the features of their cOuntenance are small
and rather delicate. Their color is light copper.
Their eyes have a slightly oblique and sunken 20
sition, which Immediately reminds one of the Chi
nese and their long, fine, black hair, all drawn
back ard and tied upon itself in a large knot on
the Lack or side of the head, still further height
ems their Chinese appearance. As on most of the
Pacific Islands, there individuals of a darker
cast and coarser hair. Their small, but
the lower lobe is perforated and flowers, with 9TH
er fragrant substances, such as tobacco pipes are
worn in them. A few perforate the upper rim of
their ear, as a more convenient place for the to-
bacco pipe they almost invariably carry with them.
| Though ignorant, degraded and naked, they are
among the most pleasing of savages.
At four P. NJ. we are brought safely to
chor in the so-called Weather Harbor on the north
east side of the island. A number of natives
come off and loiter famiiarly about our decks.
Very many understand the common sailor English,
and speak it with much distnctness. Within
| few rods of to the north, the Kings houses
close to the beach peer out from under a cocOanut
grove, exhibiting the huge Kusaien roof, with its
ridge peculiarly eoncave upwards, and here and
there around the bay the white glimmer of thatch-
ed roofs is amidst the deep green that mantled
| the whole amphitheatre.
The idea that this harbor is but large extinct,
and partially submerged crater, greatly enhances
| the interest of a scene already surcharged with
novelty Whether it has been in the first instance,
during some of its earlier eras, submarine volca-
no, afterward elevated to the regions of day, and
| denuded in the process, and has again undergone
partial subsistence, during which the coral ele-
ment was developed around and in it, must be left
| to others for final adjudication.
| The rampant of basalt towers with its sharp
serrations so near on the SOUTH and the hill of
! Leila and Mount Bauche press so close on the
north, while the lower mural line connecting them
be traced the tree tops in the west, shut
| ting off the later rays Of the sun as the eastern
spur of the southern mountains does Its earlier,
one feels when safely moOred in the placid lagoon,
whose shores wave with many-leaved thicket,
and whose shOaler waters ripple over gardens of
coral, that Nature here admits of q more than
usually near approach to her maternal bosom.
After floating uneasly for weeks the restless
sea, our vessel seems to fold its wings and nestle
down like any sea-bird upon the placid lagoon,
| thankful to the Benefcent One who elevates such
rocky battements among the waves by mechan-
ism that witnesses to his omnipOtence.
How wondrOus the chemistry, how countless the
ages, required for crumblng these compact sub
marine rocks, that when first elevated above the
denuding flood must have been more barren and
naked than even an aerial crater Upon what
tablets shall we find the annals of the various sue
cesSive creative acts that here called into being the
high-waving forests and all the members of the
lower thickets, the entanging vine and the shin
ing MOSES, and that gave life to so many of the
| In the rich vegetable mould that has accumulat-
ed around the once bare basalt luxuriate several
species of the terrestrial pulmOnilerOus shells.
Very many moluscous shell-fsh crawl over the
coral wainscoating of this marine palace, part of
whose adOrnment they have from the beginning
been while others burrow in the acrid mud along
the shore, and still Others accomplish a lifelong
bath in the springs and streams that must have
drenched the earliest of their race.
Many sprightly crab rattles its shelly limbs
the pebbles of the shore and the rocks of the
upland, lodging into its burrows and meeting in
crustaceous assembly under the gentle moon,
did its progenitors this their Eden where the
mandate first laid upon them to Sc be fruitful
and multiply" So do the various spiders here
spin their web and watch their prey, as did their
Kusaien Adams and Ewes. Here the house-fy has
buzzed, certainly ever since fish began to decay
and breadfruit to ripen. Generations upon gener-
ations of the consciously degraded cockrOaches
have with unceasing devotion accomplished their
tasks; while the raptorial dragOn-ay has glared
upon its minute prey as Its organic law required.
Black, green, striped and speckled lizards have
dashed over the rustlng eaf-bed, climbed the dizzy
trees, and basked on the sunny slopes of their
rocky homes. Sea-birds have for ages each morn
ing sped arrow-ike to fish on the distant horizon,
and have nightly aocked babbling homeward to
their undisturbed eyeries in the tops of the sea-
loving mangrove. Beauteous oceanic pigeons have
cooed love to their mates with unfailing fidelity
since the fifth Kusaien creation day.
But who shall arrange Kusaien chronology, and
who shall name that interesting date when one of
Adams race first looked into this happy valley,
where Rassalas might contentedly have wiled away
life. How enhancing must have been the sight
of the green hills to the crews of the junk or the
prOa after its long, involuntary, voyage from some
far western island.
As they crawled up the beach it is not difficult
to imagine their dread lest other unfortunate voy
ayers had preceded them and would dispute the
right of the new comers to the paradise. But
gradually, as they skulked from point to point
and explored yallies and hills without finding fel