Page 371 - Child's own book

T h e amiable prince who is tlie chief subject of the follow­
ing pages was- a native of one of the Pdew Islands, which
islands are situated in the western part of the Pacific Ocean*
and were, it Is supposed, first seen by the Spaniards of the
Philippines, who named them the Palos Islands, from the great
number of tall palm-trees which grew there, and which at a
distance appear not unlike the masts of ships, the word pales
signifying in the Spanish language something like a mast. Jt
is supposed that no Europeans had visited and ianded on any of
these islands before the Antelope, a ship belonging to the East
India Company, commanded by Captain Henry Wilson* had the
misfortune to be wrecked on one of them, in the night between
the 9th and 1 Oth August, 1783 ; and this misfortune was so
much the more distressing to the crew of the Antelope, as they
knew not what the islands afforded ; whether the natives^ if
any natives there were, wTere civil or barbarous, or whether any
refreshments for the crew, after this their severe calamity,
could be procured or not; their situation, therefore, may be
easier conceived than described. However, at length, by means
of the boats, and their own exertions, they were enabled to
reach land three or four leagues distant from the rock on which
the ship had struck, and then soon discovered, by evident signs
of places where there had been fiTes, &c,, that it was an island
not constantly inhabited, but only occasionally resorted to by
the inhabitants of some other island not far distant; and this
was fully confirmed in the course of a few days, when some of
the natives paid ihem a visit, and they proved to be a people
simple, humane, and kind, and naturally of a good-natured and