of Rosia Granville & communicated
with shore we proceeded on till we
came across the Reef Islands some twenty
miles North, these Islands are small low coral
patches not more than fifty feet above the
level of the sea, they lie in a mass of reefs
a large reef extending right around the group
making it very dangerous for navigation, dur-
ing the afternoon we annexed a small island
Matema the natives were very pleased giving
us fish and Coca Nuts, having hoisted the flag
we made our way East coming to anchor between
some Islands belonging to the same group, here
we was surrounded by natives trading with shells,
chickens, pigeons and several other things, the natives
here seemed to understand English much bet-
ter than those of Santa Cruz Group, no doubt
the missionaries had made better progress with their flock.
Matema Island or Matema is of one of the Reef Islands, of the Solomon Islands in the Temotu Province.
The language spoken on Matema Island is Pileni a form of Polynesian
from http://www.volcanolive.com/matema.html
Matema is a beautiful circular island located in the south western Reef Islands.
The island is only a few hundred metres long and about 100 m wide. It is surrounded by a circular reef.
Most of the inhabitants live on the northern part of the island. North of the island is Malim Reef.
East of the island are Manuwa and Matumbi Reefs.
The inhabitants of the island speak Polynesian but physically resemble Melanesians.
The islanders regularly paddle canoes east to the Reef Islands to trade.
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