{"id":"01KG8AKTVZG34MTTWR9S9YRRT3","cid":"bafkreid3dugutbsholtlnm6xizldyqyub6m4pu3qhbfredljcid43xkitm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2245,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":2180,"text":"narrow circles of land surrounding a smooth lagoon, connected by a\r\nsingle opening with the sea. Some of the lagoons, said to have\r\nsubterranean outlets, have no visible ones; the inclosing island, in\r\nsuch cases, being a complete zone of emerald. Other lagoons still, are\r\ngirdled by numbers of small, green islets, very near to each other.\r\n\r\nThe origin of the entire group is generally ascribed to the coral\r\ninsect.\r\n\r\nAccording to some naturalists, this wonderful little creature,\r\ncommencing its erections at the bottom of the sea, after the lapse of\r\ncenturies, carries them up to the surface, where its labours cease.\r\nHere, the inequalities of the coral collect all floating bodies;\r\nforming, after a time, a soil, in which the seeds carried thither by\r\nbirds germinate, and cover the whole with vegetation. Here and there,\r\nall over this archipelago, numberless naked, detached coral formations\r\nare seen, just emerging, as it were from the ocean. These would appear\r\nto be islands in the very process of creation—at any rate, one\r\ninvoluntarily concludes so, on beholding them.\r\n\r\nAs far as I know, there are but few bread-fruit trees in any part of\r\nthe Pomotu group. In many places the cocoa-nut even does not grow;\r\nthough, in others, it largely flourishes. Consequently, some of the\r\nislands are altogether uninhabited; others support but a single family;\r\nand in no place is the population very large. In some respects the\r\nnatives resemble the Tahitians: their language, too, is very similar.\r\nThe people of the southeasterly clusters—concerning whom, however, but\r\nlittle is known—have a bad name as cannibals; and for that reason their\r\nhospitality is seldom taxed by the mariner.\r\n\r\nWithin a few years past, missionaries from the Society group have\r\nsettled among the Leeward Islands, where the natives have treated them\r\nkindly. Indeed, nominally, many of these people are now Christians;\r\nand, through the political influence of their instructors, no doubt, a\r\nshort time since came tinder the allegiance of Pomaree, the Queen of\r\nTahiti; with which island they always carried on considerable\r\nintercourse.\r\n\r\nThe Coral Islands are principally visited by the pearl-shell fishermen,\r\nwho arrive in small schooners, carrying not more than five or six men.\r\n\r\nFor a long while the business was engrossed by Merenhout, the French\r\nConsul at Tahiti, but a Dutchman by birth, who, in one year, is said to\r\nhave sent to France fifty thousand dollars’ worth of shells. The\r\noysters are found in the lagoons, and about the reefs; and, for\r\nhalf-a-dozen nails a day, or a compensation still less, the natives are\r\nhired to dive after them.\r\n\r\nA great deal of cocoa-nut oil is also obtained in various places. Some\r\nof the uninhabited islands are covered with dense groves; and the\r\nungathered nuts which have fallen year after year, lie upon the ground\r\nin incredible quantities. Two or three men, provided with the necessary\r\napparatus for trying out the oil, will, in the course of a week or two,\r\nobtain enough to load one of the large sea-canoes.\r\n\r\nCocoa-nut oil is now manufactured in different parts of the South Seas,\r\nand forms no small part of the traffic carried on with trading vessels.\r\nA considerable quantity is annually exported from the Society Islands\r\nto Sydney. It is used in lamps and for machinery, being much cheaper\r\nthan the sperm, and, for both purposes, better than the right-whale\r\noil. They bottle it up in large bamboos, six or eight feet long; and\r\nthese form part of the circulating medium of Tahiti.\r\n\r\nTo return to the ship. The wind dying away, evening came on before we\r\ndrew near the island. But we had it in view during the whole afternoon.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJH0C3G25AV0CX5AT7V2M","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTVZT9SNGETPHJ1MZMK6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTW6G74DVRACHTG8ERPM","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:17.279Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:24.536Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}