death was also attributed to the same cause-and an attack so terminating, was called rima atua: "hand of god." Those who died suddenly were also said to be haruhia e te atua, or uumehia e te atua:" seized by the god, or strangled by the god.". Indeed, the gods were supposed to send all the diseases with which they were afflicted.

Whatever mystery they might attach to the preparation and use of medicine, their practice of surgery, and application of external remedies, were more simple and straightforward. They did not apply friction in the same manner as the Sandwich Islanders sometimes do, viz. by placing the patient flat on the ground, and rolling a twelve or fourteen pound shot backwards and forwards along the back; but in a far more gentle manner, by rubbing with the hands the muscles of the limbs, and pressing them in the same way as the Indians practise shampooing.

The natives had no method of using the warm-bath, but often seated their patients on a pile of heated stones strewed over with green herbs or leaves, and kept them covered with a thick cloth till the most profuse perspiration was induced. In this state, to our great astonishment, at the most critical seasons of illness, the patient would leave the heap of stones, and plunge into the sea, near which the oven was generally heated. Though the shock must have been very great, they appeared to sustain no injury from this transition.

There were persons among them celebrated as oculists, but their skill principally consisted in removing foreign substances from the eye; and when applied to for this purpose, they, as well as others, received the payment or fee before they commenced their operations;

and if the present did not satisfy them, if they took one splinter, &c. out of the eye, to satisfy the employers, they left another in, that they might be sent for again. Their surgeons were remarkably dexterous in closing a cut or thrust, by drawing the edges carefully together, and applying the pungent juice of the ape, arum costatum, to the surface. This, acting like caustic, must have caused

great pain.

A fractured limb they set without much trouble: applying splinters of bamboo-cane to the sides, and binding it up till it was healed. A dislocation they usually succeeded in reducing; but the other parts of their surgical practice were marked by a rude promptness, temerity, and barbarism, almost incredible. A man one day fell from a tree, and dislocated some part of his neck. His companions, on perceiving it, instantly took him up: one of them placed his head between his own knees, and held it firmly; while the others, taking hold of his body, twisted the joint into its proper place.

On another occasion, a number of young men, in the district of Fare, were carrying large stones, suspended from each end of a pole across their shoulders, their usual mode of carrying a burden: one of them so injured the vertebræ, as to be almost unable to move; he had, as they expressed it, fati te tua, broken the back. His fellow-workmen laid him flat on his face on the grass; one grasped and pulled his shoulders, and the other his legs, while a third actually pressed with both knees his whole weight upon the back, where the bones appeared displaced. It was not far from Mr. Barff's house where the accident occurred, and, observing the people assembled, he went to inquire the cause, and saw them thus engaged. On his asking what they were doing, they

coolly replied, that they were only straightening the man's back, which had been broken in with carrying stones. The vertebræ appeared to be replaced; they bound a long girdle repeatedly round his body, led him home, and, without any other treatment, he was in a short time able to resume his employment.

The operation of trepanning they sometimes attempted, and say they have practised with success. It is reported that there are persons living in the island of Borabora on whom it has been performed, or at least an operation very much resembling it: the bones of the skull having been fractured in battle, they have cleared away the skin and coverings, and, having removed the fractured piece of bone, have carefully fitted in a piece of cocoa-nut shell, and replaced the covering and skin; on the healing of which, the man has recovered. I never saw any individual who had undergone this operation, but, from the concurrent testimony of the people, I have no doubt they have performed it.

It is also related, although I confess I can scarcely believe it, that on some occasions, when the brain has been injured as well as the bone, they have opened the skull, taken out the injured portion of the brain, and, having a pig ready, have killed it, taken out the pig's brains, put them in the man's head, and covered them up. They persist in stating that this has been done; but add, that the persons always became furious with madness, and died. They had no idea of phlebotomy as a remedy for disease, but were clever at lancing an abscess, which was generally effected with the thorn from a kind of bramble, or a shark's tooth.

However great the influence of those persons who administered medicine, or practised surgery, might

formerly have been, it has entirely ceased since the people have been acquainted with the more certain and efficacious application of English medicine. Like the priests in their temples formerly, the minister of their religion, at every station, is now sought in all cases of sickness, as their physician; and no small portion of our time was occupied in administering medicine, so far as our scanty means would admit.

This is a task necessarily devolving upon the Missionaries, as the only Europeans residing amongst them, either possessing medicine, or knowing how to use it; and it is a claim which we never desired to refuse. It is perfectly compatible with the higher duties of our station-the cure of their spiritual maladies. We have only to regret that we have not possessed better qualifications, and more ample means for its efficient discharge. So long as our family medicine has lasted, we have been ready to share it with those who were in need, and have often been thankful (when afflicted ourselves, and destitute,) to receive the simple remedies they were able to supply.

The Missionary Society has readily furnished us with medical books and instruments; and for our own use, a liberal supply of medicines but it has generally been inadequate to the wants of the people. Medicine is expensive, and perhaps it would not be considered a just appropriation of the Society's funds, to expend them in providing medicine for those among whom its agents labour; yet it is one of the most affecting sights a Missionary can witness, when visiting his people, to behold them enduring the most painful suffering, pining under the influence of disease, and perhaps sinking into a premature grave, and to know that if he had the means within his reach, he could at least relieve them.

The occurrences are not unfrequent, wherein an anxious parent brings a poor sickly child to his house, with which she is obliged to return unrelieved, not because the disease is remediless, but because the Missionary has not, it may be, a cheap and simple remedy to bestow. The natives would cheerfully purchase so valuable an article as medicine, but they have no means of doing so, by bartering in the islands the produce of their labour. If they send it to England, the return is distant and uncertain; and mistakes, embarrassing to them, are likely to occur. It is to be hoped, however, that as the means of intercommunication become more frequent and regular, these difficulties will be removed. Several generous

individuals have laid the people of some of the islands under great obligations, of which they are duly sensible, by sending them out, gratuitously, a liberal supply of the most useful medicines.

It may not be necessary for a Missionary in a civilized nation, where the healing art is cultivated, or going to a country where European colonies are settled, or commercial establishments are formed, to be acquainted with the practice of physic. It is, however, important, and ought to be borne in mind by those who are looking forward to Missionary work, and by those who patronize them, that it would be of the highest advantage for one going to an uncivilized people, to be acquainted with the qualities and use of medicine.

A degree of proficiency that would qualify him to practise in his native country, is not necessary. But so much knowledge as would enable him to be exceedingly serviceable to the people, to win their confidence and affection, and to confer on him an influence the most important and advantageous, in accomplishing the great objects of