We have often wondered why it is that masters of vessels, who well know the foregoing remarks to be true, will allow these miserable pests and outcasts to come on board their ships. They are nearly all escaped convicts from the penal colonies of Sydney and Norfolk Island, and the worst class of those convicts. They contaminate all with whom they come in contact; and no person, having the slightest regard for himself, or possessed of the smallest degree of ambition or honesty, would for a moment consent to reside on one of these islands, living in the manner these _beachcombers_ generally do. They are constantly instilling some mischief into the heads of the natives, and teaching them treachery and deceit. Many times, we are sorry to say, has great injustice been done to the shipwrecked or invalid mariner by classing him with these people, but no one despises a beachcomber more than a true sailor. The taboo is also exercised at this island; per example: when their products are very scarce, the king places the taboo upon all trade, thus forbidding them to take off any thing to ships; but should a ship arrive and wish to trade, the taboo may be broken by the captain coming ashore and paying the king a certain amount of tobacco. As soon as the taboo is off, canoes go in great numbers. The appearance of three ships at any one time also breaks the taboo. The natives here also live in a state of great subjection. The principal authority is vested in a king; the chiefs rank next, each chief having authority over a particular tribe, who are held more as slaves than as free men. The climate is warm, and of an even temperature, the island being forty-eight miles south of the equator. They enjoy alternately the sea-breeze and land-breeze, the thermometer ranging from seventy-five to eighty degrees. [Illustration: USING HIS JAW.]