While the bread-fruit is ripening upon the flats, the inhabitants are

supplied in some measure from the trees which they have planted upon the

hills to preserve a succession; but the quantity is not sufficient to

prevent scarcity: they live therefore upon the sour paste, which they

call _Mahie_, upon wild plantains, and ahee-nuts, which at this time are

in perfection. How it happened that the Dolphin, which was here at this

season, found such plenty of bread-fruit upon the trees I cannot tell,

except the season in which they ripen varies.

At our return, our Indian friends crowded about us, and none of them

came empty-handed. Though I had determined to restore the canoes which

had been detained to their owners, it had not yet been done; but I now

released them as they were applied for. Upon this occasion I could not

but remark with concern, that these people were capable of practising

petty frauds against each other, with a deliberate dishonesty, which

gave me a much worse opinion of them than I had ever entertained from

the robberies they committed, under the strong temptation to which a

sudden opportunity of enriching themselves with the inestimable metal

and manufactures of Europe exposed them.

Among others who applied to me for the release of a canoe, was one

POTATTOW, a man of some consequence, well known to us all. I consented,

supposing the vessel to be his own, or that he applied on the behalf of

a friend: he went immediately to the beach, and took possession of one

of the boats, which, with the assistance of his people, he began to

carry off. Upon this, however, it was eagerly claimed by the right

owners, who, supported by the other Indians, clamorously reproached him

for invading their property, and prepared to take the canoe from him by

force. Upon this, he desired to be heard, and told them, that the canoe

did, indeed, once belong to those who claimed it; but that I, having

seized it as a forfeit, had sold it to him for a pig. This silenced the

clamour: the owners, knowing that from my power there was no appeal,

acquiesced; and Potattow would have carried off his prize, if the

dispute had not fortunately been overheard by some of our people, who

reported it to me. I gave orders immediately that the Indians should be

undeceived; upon which the right owners took possession of their canoe,

and Potattow was so conscious of his guilt, that neither he nor his

wife, who was privy to his knavery, could look us in the face for some

time afterwards.

CHAP. XVI.

AN EXPEDITION OF MR. BANKS TO TRACE THE RIVER: MARKS OF SUBTERRANEOUS

FIRE: PREPARATIONS FOR LEAVING THE ISLAND: AN ACCOUNT OF TUPIA.

ON the 3d, Mr. Banks set out early in the morning with some Indian

guides, to trace our river up the valley from which it issues, and

examine how far its banks were inhabited. For about six miles they met

with houses, not far distant from each other, on each side of the river,

and the valley was every where about four hundred yards wide from the

foot of the hill on one side to the foot of that on the other; but they

were now shown a house which they were told was the last that they would

see. When they came up to it, the master of it offered them refreshments

of cocoa-nuts and other fruits, of which they accepted. After a short

stay, they walked forward for a considerable time: in bad way it is not

easy to compute distances, but they imagined that they had walked about

six miles farther, following the course of the river, when they

frequently passed under vaults, formed by fragments of the rock, in

which they were told people who were benighted frequently passed the

night. Soon after they found the river banked by steep rocks, from which

a cascade, falling with great violence, formed a pool, so steep, that

the Indians said they could not pass it. They seemed, indeed, not much

to be acquainted with the valley beyond this place, their business lying

chiefly upon the declivity of the rocks on each side, and the plains

which extended on their summits, where they found plenty of wild

plantain, which they called _Vae_. The way up these rocks from the banks

of the river was in every respect dreadful: the sides were nearly

perpendicular, and in some places one hundred feet high: they were also

rendered exceedingly slippery by the water of innumerable springs which

issued from the fissures on the surface: yet up these precipices a way

was to be traced by a succession of long pieces of the bark of the

_Hibiscus tiliaceus_, which served as a rope for the climber to take

hold of, and assisted him in scrambling from one ledge to another,

though upon these ledges there was footing only for an Indian or a goat.

One of these ropes was nearly thirty feet in length, and their guides

offered to assist them in mounting this pass, but recommended another at

a little distance lower down, as less difficult and dangerous. They took

a view of this “better way,” but found it so bad that they did not

choose to attempt it, as there was nothing at the top to reward their

toil and hazard, but a grove of the wild plantain or vae tree, which

they had often seen before.

During this excursion, Mr. Banks had an excellent opportunity to examine

the rocks, which were almost every where naked, for minerals; but he

found not the least appearance of any. The stones every where, like

those of Madeira, showed manifest tokens of having been burnt; nor is

there a single specimen of any stone, among all those that were

collected in the island, upon which there are not manifest and

indubitable marks of fire; except, perhaps, some small pieces of the

hatchet-stone, and even of that, other fragments were collected which

were burnt almost to a pumice. Traces of fire are also manifest in the

very clay upon the hills; and it may, therefore, not unreasonably be

supposed, that this and the neighbouring islands are either shattered

remains of a continent, which some have supposed to be necessary in this

part of the globe, to preserve an equilibrium of its parts, which were

left behind when the rest sunk by the mining of a subterraneous fire, so

as to give a passage to the sea over it; or were torn from rocks, which,

from the creation of the world, had been the bed of the sea, and thrown

up in heaps, to a height which the waters never reach. One or other of

these suppositions will perhaps be thought the more probable, as the

water does not gradually grow shallow as the shore is approached, and

the islands are almost every where surrounded by reefs, which appear to

be rude and broken, as some violent concussion would naturally leave the

solid substance of the earth. It may also be remarked upon this

occasion, that the most probable cause of earthquakes seems to be the

sudden rushing in of water upon some vast mass of subterraneous fire, by

the instantaneous rarefaction of which into vapour the mine is sprung,

and various substances, in all stages of vitrification, with shells, and

other marine productions, that are now found fossil, and the strata that

covered the furnace, are thrown up; while those parts of the land which

were supported upon the broken shell give way, and sink into the gulf.

With this theory the phænomena of all earthquakes seem to agree: pools

of water are frequently left where land has subsided; and various

substances, which manifestly appear to have suffered by the action of

fire, are thrown up. It is indeed true, that fire cannot subsist without

air; but this cannot be urged against there being fire below that part

of the earth which forms the bed of the sea; because there may be

innumerable fissures by which a communication between those parts and

the external air may be kept up, even upon the highest mountains, and at

the greatest distance from the sea-shore.

On the 4th, Mr. Banks employed himself in planting a great quantity of

the seeds of water melons, oranges, lemons, limes, and other plants and

trees which he had collected at Rio de Janeiro. For these he prepared

ground on each side of the fort, with as many varieties of soil as he

could choose; and there is little doubt but that they will succeed. He

also gave liberally of these seeds to the Indians, and planted many of

them in the woods: some of the melon seeds having been planted soon

after our arrival, the natives showed him several of the plants which

appeared to be in the most flourishing condition, and were continually

asking him for more.

We now began to prepare for our departure, by bending the sails and

performing other necessary operations on board the ship, our water being

already on board, and the provisions examined. In the mean time we had

another visit from Oamo, Oberea, and their son and daughter; the Indians

expressing their respect by uncovering the upper parts of their body as

they had done before. The daughter, whose name we understood to be

TOIMATA, was very desirous to see the fort, but her father would by no

means suffer her to come in. Tearee, the son of Waheatua, the sovereign

of Tiarrabou, the south-east peninsula, was also with us at this time;

and we received intelligence of the landing of another guest, whose

company was neither expected nor desired: this was no other than the

ingenious gentleman who contrived to steal our quadrant. We were told,

that he intended to try his fortune again in the night; but the Indians

all offered very zealously to assist us against him, desiring that, for

this purpose, they might be permitted to lie in the fort. This had so

good an effect, that the thief relinquished his enterprise in despair.

On the 7th, the carpenters were employed in taking down the gates and

pallisadoes of our little fortification, for firewood on board the ship;

and one of the Indians had dexterity enough to steal the staple and hook

upon which the gate turned: he was immediately pursued, and after a

chace of six miles, he appeared to have been passed, having concealed

himself among some rushes in the brook; the rushes were searched, and

though the thief had escaped, a scraper was found which had been stolen

from the ship some time before; and soon after our old friend Tubourai

Tamaide brought us the staple.

On the 8th and 9th, we continued to dismantle our fort, and our friends

still flocked about us; some, I believe, sorry at the approach of our

departure, and others desirous to make as much as they could of us while

we staid.

We were in hopes that we should now leave the island, without giving or

receiving any other offence; but it unfortunately happened otherwise.

Two foreign seamen having been out with my permission, one of them was

robbed of his knife, and endeavouring to recover it, probably with

circumstances of great provocation, the Indians attacked him, and

dangerously wounded him with a stone; they wounded his companion also

slightly in the head, and then fled into the mountains. As I should have

been sorry to take any farther notice of the affair, I was not

displeased that the offenders had escaped; but I was immediately

involved in a quarrel which I very much regretted, and which yet it was

not possible to avoid.

In the middle of the night between the 8th and 9th, Clement Webb and

Samuel Gibson, two of the marines, both young men, went privately from

the fort, and in the morning were not to be found. As public notice had

been given, that all hands were to go on board on the next day, and that

the ship would sail on the morrow of that day or the day following, I

began to fear that the absentees intended to stay behind. I knew that I

could take no effectual steps to recover them, without endangering the

harmony and good-will which at present subsisted among us; and therefore

determined to wait a day for the chance of their return.

On Monday morning the 10th, the marines, to my great concern, not being

returned, an enquiry was made after them of the Indians, who frankly

told us, that they did not intend to return, and had taken refuge in the

mountains, where it was impossible for our people to find them. They

were then requested to assist in the search, and after some

deliberation, two of them undertook to conduct such persons as I should

think proper to send after them to the place of their retreat. As they

were known to be without arms, I thought two would be sufficient, and

accordingly dispatched a petty officer, and the corporal of the marines,

with the Indian guides, to fetch them back. As the recovery of these men

was a matter of great importance, as I had no time to lose, and as the

Indians spoke doubtfully of their return, telling us, that they had each

of them taken a wife, and were become inhabitants of the country, it was

intimated to several of the chiefs who were in the fort with their

women, among whom were Tubourai Tamaide, Tomio, and Oberea, that they

would not be permitted to leave it till our deserters were brought back.

This precaution I thought the more necessary, as, by concealing them a

few days, they might compel me to go without them; and I had the

pleasure to observe, that they received the intimation with very little

signs either of fear or discontent; assuring me that my people should be

secured and sent back as soon as possible. While this was doing at the

fort, I sent Mr. Hicks in the pinnace to fetch Tootahah on board the

ship, which he did, without alarming either him or his people. If the

Indian guides proved faithful and in earnest, I had reason to expect the

return of my people with the deserters before evening. Being

disappointed, my suspicions increased; and night coming on, I thought it

was not safe to let the people whom I had detained as hostages continue

at the fort, and I therefore ordered Tubourai Tamaide, Oberea, and some

others, to be taken on board the ship. This spread a general alarm, and

several of them, especially the women, expressed their apprehensions

with great emotion and many tears when they were put into the boat. I

went on board with them, and Mr. Banks remained on shore, with some

others whom I thought it of less consequence to secure.

About nine o’clock, Webb was brought back by some of the natives, who

declared, that Gibson, and the petty officer and corporal, would be

detained till Tootahah should be set at liberty. The tables were now

turned upon me; but I had proceeded too far to retreat. I immediately

dispatched Mr. Hicks in the long-boat, with a strong party of men, to

rescue the prisoners, and told Tootahah that it behoved him to send some

of his people with them, with orders to afford them effectual

assistance, and to demand the release of my men in his name, for that I

should expect him to answer for the contrary. He readily complied: this

party recovered my men without the least opposition; and about seven

o’clock in the morning returned with them to the ship, though they had

not been able to recover the arms which had been taken from them when

they were seized: these, however, were brought on board in less than

half an hour, and the chiefs were immediately set at liberty.

When I questioned the petty officer concerning what had happened on

shore, he told me, that neither the natives who went with him, nor those

whom they met in their way, would give them any intelligence of the

deserters; but, on the contrary, became very troublesome: that, as he

was returning for further orders to the ship, he and his comrade were

suddenly seized by a number of armed men, who having learnt that

Tootahah was confined, had concealed themselves in a wood for that

purpose, and who, having taken them at a disadvantage, forced their

weapons out of their hands, and declared, that they would detain them

till their chief should be set at liberty. He said, however, that the

Indians were not unanimous in this measure; that some were for setting

them at liberty, and others for detaining them; that an eager dispute

ensued, and that from words they came to blows, but that the party for

detaining them at length prevailed; that soon after Webb and Gibson were

brought in by a party of the natives, as prisoners, that they also might

be secured as hostages for the chief; but that it was, after some

debate, resolved to send Webb to inform me of their resolution, to

assure me that his companions were safe, and direct me where I might

send my answer. Thus it appears, that, whatever were the disadvantages

of seizing the chiefs, I should never have recovered my men by any other

method. When the chiefs were set on shore from the ship, those at the

fort were also set at liberty, and, after staying with Mr. Banks about

an hour, they all went away. Upon this occasion, as they had done upon

another of the same kind, they expressed their joy by an undeserved

liberality, strongly urging us to accept of four hogs. These we

absolutely refused as a present, and they as absolutely refusing to be

paid for them, the hogs did not change masters. Upon examining the

deserters, we found that the account which the Indians had given of them

was true: they had strongly attached themselves to two girls, and it was

their intention to conceal themselves till the ship had sailed, and take

up their residence upon the island. This night every thing was got off

from the shore, and every body slept on board.

Among the natives who were almost constantly with us, was Tupia, whose

name has been often mentioned in this narrative. He had been, as I have

before observed, the first minister of Oberea, when she was in the

height of her power: he was also the chief Tahowa or priest of the

island, consequently well acquainted with the religion of the country,

as well with respect to its ceremonies as principles. He had also great

experience and knowledge in navigation, and was particularly acquainted

with the number and situation of the neighbouring islands. This man had

often expressed a desire to go with us, and on the 12th in the morning,

having, with the other natives, left us the day before, he came on

board, with a boy about thirteen years of age, his servant, and urged us

to let him proceed with us on our voyage. To have such a person on board

was certainly desirable for many reasons; by learning his language, and

teaching him ours, we should be able to acquire a much better knowledge

of the customs, policy, and religion of the people, than our short stay

among them could give us, I therefore gladly agreed to receive them on

board. As we were prevented from sailing to-day, by having found it

necessary to make new stocks to our small and best bower anchors, the

old ones having been totally destroyed by the worms, Tupia said, he

would go once more on shore, and make a signal for the boat to fetch him

off in the evening. He went accordingly, and took with him a miniature

picture of Mr. Banks, to shew his friends, and several little things to

give them as parting presents.

After dinner, Mr. Banks being desirous to procure a drawing of the Morai

belonging to Tootahah at Eparré, I attended him thither, accompanied by

Dr. Solander, in the pinnace. As soon as we landed, many of our friends

came to meet us, though some absented themselves in resentment of what

had happened the day before. We immediately proceeded to Tootahah’s

house, where we were joined by Oberea, with several others who had not

come out to meet us, and a perfect reconciliation was soon brought

about; in consequence of which they promised to visit us early the next

day, to take a last farewell of us, as we told them we should certainly

set sail in the afternoon. At this place also we found Tupia, who

returned with us, and slept this night on board the ship for the first

time.

On the next morning, Thursday the 13th of July, the ship was very early

crowded with our friends, and surrounded by a multitude of canoes, which

were filled with the natives of an inferior class. Between eleven and

twelve we weighed anchor, and as soon as the ship was under sail, the

Indians on board took their leaves, and wept, with a decent and silent

sorrow, in which there was something very striking and tender: the

people in the canoes, on the contrary, seemed to vie with each other in

the loudness of their lamentations, which we considered rather as

affectation than grief. Tupia sustained himself in this scene with a

firmness and resolution truly admirable: he wept, indeed, but the effort

that he made to conceal his tears, concurred, with them, to do him

honour. He sent his last present, a shirt, by Otheothea, to Potomai,

Tootahah’s favourite mistress, and then went with Mr. Banks to the

mast-head, waving to the canoes as long as they continued in sight.

Thus we took leave of Otaheite, and its inhabitants, after a stay of

just three months; for much the greater part of the time we lived

together in the most cordial friendship, and a perpetual reciprocation

of good offices. The accidental differences which now and then happened,

could not be more sincerely regretted on their part than they were on

ours: the principal causes were such as necessarily resulted from our

situation and circumstances, in conjunction with the infirmities of

human nature, from our not being able perfectly to understand each

other, and from the disposition of the inhabitants to theft, which we

could not at all times bear with or prevent. They had not, however,

except in one instance, been attended with any fatal consequence; and to

that accident were owing the measures that I took to prevent others of

the same kind. I hoped, indeed, to have availed myself of the impression

which had been made upon them by the lives that had been sacrificed in

their contest with the Dolphin, so as that the intercourse between us

should have been carried on wholly without bloodshed; and by this hope

all my measures were directed during the whole of my continuance at the

island; and I sincerely wish, that whoever shall next visit it, may be

still more fortunate. Our traffic here was carried on with as much order

as in the best regulated market in Europe. It was managed principally by

Mr. Banks, who was indefatigable in procuring provisions and

refreshments while they were to be had; but during the latter part of

our time they became scarce, partly by the increased consumption at the

fort and ship, and partly by the coming on of the season in which

cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit fail. All kind of fruit we purchased for

beads and nails; but no nails less than fortypenny were current: after a

very short time we could never get a pig of more than ten or twelve

pounds for less than a hatchet; because, though these people set a high

value upon spike-nails, yet these being an article with which many

people in the ship were provided, the women found a much more easy way

of procuring them than by bringing down provisions.

The best articles for traffic here are axes, hatches, spikes, large

nails, looking-glasses, knives, and beads; for some of which, every

thing that the natives have may be procured. They are indeed fond of

fine linen cloth, both white and printed; but an axe worth half-a-crown

will fetch more than a piece of cloth worth twenty shillings.

CHAP. XVII.

A PARTICULAR DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND; ITS PRODUCE AND INHABITANTS;

THEIR DRESS, HABITATIONS, FOOD, DOMESTIC LIFE, AND AMUSEMENTS.

WE found the longitude of Port-Royal bay, in this island, as settled by

Captain Wallis, who discovered it on the 9th of June, 1767, to be within

half a degree of the truth. We found Point Venus, the northern extremity

of the island, and the eastern point of the bay, to lie in the longitude

of 149° 13ʹ, this being the mean result of a great number of

observations made upon the spot. The island is surrounded by a reef of

coral rock, which forms several excellent bays and harbours, some of

which have been particularly described, where there is room and depth of

water for any number of the largest ships. Port-Royal bay, called by the

natives Matavai, which is not inferior to any in Otaheite, may easily be

known by a very high mountain in the middle of the island, which bears

due south from Point Venus. To sail into it, either keep the west point

of the reef that lies before Point Venus close on board, or give it a

birth of near half a mile, in order to avoid a small shoal of coral

rocks, on which there is but two fathom and a half of water. The best

anchoring is on the eastern side of the bay, where there is sixteen and

fourteen fathom upon an ousey bottom. The shore of the bay is a fine

sandy beach, behind which runs a river of fresh water, so that any

number of ships may water here without incommoding each other; but the

only wood for firing, upon the whole island, is that of fruit trees,

which must be purchased of the natives, or all hope of living upon good

terms with them given up. There are some harbours to the westward of

this bay which have not been mentioned; but, as they are contiguous to

it, and laid down in the plan, a description of them is unnecessary.

The face of the country, except that part of it which borders upon the

sea, is very uneven; it rises in ridges that run up into the middle of

the island, and there form mountains, which may be seen at the distance

of sixty miles: between the foot of these ridges and the sea is a border

of low land, surrounding the whole island, except in a few places where

the ridges rise directly from the sea: the border of low land is in

different parts of different breadths, but no where more than a mile and

a half. The soil, except upon the very tops of the ridges, is extremely

rich and fertile, watered by a great number of rivulets of excellent

water, and covered with fruit trees of various kinds, some of which are

of a stately growth and thick foliage, so as to form one continued wood;

and even the tops of the ridges, though in general they are bare, and

burnt up by the sun, are, in some parts, not without their produce.

The low land that lies between the foot of the ridges and the sea, and

some of the valleys, are the only parts of the island that are

inhabited, and here it is populous: the houses do not form villages or

towns, but are ranged along the whole border at the distance of about

fifty yards from each other, with little plantations of plantains, the

tree which furnishes them with cloth. The whole island, according to

Tupia’s account, who certainly knew, could furnish six thousand seven

hundred and eighty fighting men, from which the number of inhabitants

may easily be computed.

The produce of this island is bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, bananas, of

thirteen sorts, the best we had ever eaten; plantains; a fruit not

unlike an apple, which, when ripe, is very pleasant; sweet potatoes,

yams, cocoas, a kind of _Arum_; a fruit known here by the name of

_Jambu_, and reckoned most delicious; sugar-cane, which the inhabitants

eat raw; a root of the salop kind, called by the inhabitants _Pea_; a

plant called _Ethee_, of which the root only is eaten; a fruit that

grows in a pod, like that of a large kidney-bean, which, when it is

roasted, eats very much like a chesnut, by the natives called _Ahee_; a

tree called _Wharra_, called in the East Indies _Pandanes_, which

produces fruit, something like the pine-apple; a shrub called _Nono_;

the _Morinda_, which also produces fruit; a species of fern, of which

the root is eaten, and sometimes the leaves; and a plant called _Theve_,

of which the root also is eaten: but the fruits of the _Nono_, the fern,

and the _Theve_, are eaten only by the inferior people, and in times of

scarcity. All these, which serve the inhabitants for food, the earth

produces spontaneously, or with so little culture, that they seem to be

exempted from the first general curse, that “man should eat his bread in

the sweat of his brow.” They have also the Chinese paper mulberry,

_morus papyrifera_, which they call _Aouta_; a tree resembling the wild

fig-tree of the West Indies; another species of fig, which they call

_Matte_; the _cordia sebestina orientalis_, which they call _Etou_; a

kind of Cyperus grass, which they call _Moo_; a species of

_tournefortia_, which they call _Taheinoo_; another of the _convolvulus

poluce_, which they call _Eurhe_; the _solanum centifolium_, which they

call _Ebooa_; the _calophyllum mophylum_, which they call _Tamannu_; the

_hibiscus tiliaceus_, called _Poerou_, a frutescent nettle; the _urtica

argentea_, called _Erowa_; with many other plants which cannot here be

particularly mentioned: those that have been named already will be

referred to in the subsequent part of this work.

They have no European fruit, garden stuff, pulse, or legumes, nor grain

of any kind.

Of tame animals they have only hogs, dogs, and poultry; neither is there

a wild animal in the island, except ducks, pigeons, paroquets, with a

few other birds, and rats, there being no other quadruped, nor any

serpent. But the sea supplies them with great variety of most excellent

fish, to eat which is their chief luxury, and to catch it their

principal labour.

As to the people they are of the largest size of Europeans. The men are

tall, strong, well-limbed, and finely shaped. The tallest that we saw

was a man upon a neighbouring island, called HUAHEINE, who measured six

feet three inches and a half. The women of the superior rank are also in

general above our middle stature, but those of the inferior class are

rather below it, and some of them are very small. This defect in size

probably proceeds from their early commerce with men, the only thing in

which they differ from their superiors, that could possibly affect their

growth.

Their natural complexion is that kind of clear olive, or _brunette_,

which many people in Europe prefer to the finest white and red. In those

that are exposed to the wind and sun, it is considerably deepened, but

in others that live under shelter, especially the superior class of

women, it continues of its native hue, and the skin is most delicately

smooth and soft: they have no tint in their cheeks, which we distinguish

by the name of colour. The shape of the face is comely, the cheek-bones

are not high, neither are the eyes hollow, nor the brow prominent: the

only feature that does not correspond with our ideas of beauty is the

nose, which, in general, is somewhat flat; but their eyes, especially

those of the women, are full of expression, sometimes sparkling with

fire, and sometimes melting with softness; their teeth also are, almost

without exception, most beautifully even and white, and their breath

perfectly without taint.

The hair is almost universally black, and rather coarse: the men have

beards, which they wear in many fashions, always, however, plucking out

great part of them, and keeping the rest perfectly clean and neat. Both

sexes also eradicate every hair from under their arms, and accused us of

great uncleanliness for not doing the same. In their motions there is at

once vigour and ease; their walk is graceful, their deportment liberal,

and their behaviour to strangers and to each other affable and

courteous. In their dispositions, also, they seemed to be brave, open,

and candid, without either suspicion or treachery, cruelty or revenge;

so that we placed the same confidence in them as in our best friends,

many of us, particularly Mr. Banks, sleeping frequently in their houses

in the woods, without a companion, and consequently wholly in their

power. They were, however, all thieves; and when that is allowed, they

need not much fear a competition with the people of any other nation

upon earth. During our stay in this island, we saw about five or six

persons, like one that was met by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander on the 24th

of April, in their walk to the eastward, whose skins were of a dead

white, like the nose of a white horse; with white hair, beard, brows,

and eye-lashes; red, tender eyes; a short sight, and scurfy skins,

covered with a kind of white down; but we found that no two of these

belonged to the same family, and therefore concluded, that they were not

a species, but unhappy individuals, rendered anomalous by disease.

It is a custom in most countries where the inhabitants have long hair,

for the men to cut it short, and the women to pride themselves in its

length. Here, however, the contrary custom prevails; the women always

cut it short round their ears, and the men, except the fishers, who are

almost continually in the water, suffer it to flow in large waves over

their shoulders, or tie it up in a bunch on the top of their heads.

They have a custom, also, of anointing their heads, with what they call

_Monoe_, an oil expressed from the cocoa-nut, in which some sweet herbs

or flowers have been infused: as the oil is generally rancid, the smell

is at first very disagreeable to a European; and as they live in a hot

country, and have no such thing as a comb, they are not able to keep

their heads free from lice, which the children and common people

sometimes pick out and eat; a hateful custom, wholly different from

their manners in every other particular; for they are delicate and

cleanly almost without example; and those to whom we distributed combs

soon delivered themselves from vermin, with a diligence which showed

that they were not more odious to us than to them.

They have a custom of staining their bodies, nearly in the same manner

as is practised in many other parts of the world, which they call

_Tattowing_. They prick the skin, so as just not to fetch blood, with a

small instrument, something in the form of a hoe; that part which

answers to the blade is made of a bone or shell, scraped very thin, and

is from a quarter of an inch to an inch and a half wide; the edge is cut

into sharp teeth or points, from the number of three to twenty,

according to its size: when this is to be used, they dip the teeth into

a mixture of a kind of lamp-black, formed of the smoke that rises from

an oily nut which they burn instead of candles, and water; the teeth,

thus prepared, are placed upon the skin, and the handle to which they

are fastened being struck, by quick smart blows, with a stick fitted to

the purpose, they pierce it, and at the same time carry into the

puncture the black composition, which leaves an indelible stain. The

operation is painful, and it is some days before the wounds are healed.

It is performed upon the youth of both sexes when they are about twelve

or fourteen years of age, on several parts of the body, and in various

figures, according to the fancy of the parent, or perhaps the rank of

the party. The women are generally marked with this stain, in the form

of a Z, on every joint of their fingers and toes, and frequently round

the outside of their feet: the men are also marked with the same figure,

and both men and women have squares, circles, crescents, and

ill-designed representations of men, birds, or dogs, and various other

devices impressed upon their legs, and arms, some of which, we were

told, had significations, though we could never learn what they were.

But the part on which these ornaments are lavished with the greatest

profusion is the breech: this, in both sexes, is covered with a deep

black; above which, arches are drawn one over another as high as the

short ribs. They are often a quarter of an inch broad, and the edges are

not straight lines, but indented. These arches are their pride, and are

shown both by men and women with a mixture of ostentation and pleasure;

whether as an ornament, or a proof of their fortitude and resolution in

bearing pain, we could not determine. The face in general is left

unmarked: for we saw but one instance to the contrary. Some old men had

the greatest part of their bodies covered with large patches of black,

deeply indented at the edges, like a rude imitation of flame; but we

were told, that they came from a low island, called NOOUOORA, and were

not natives of Otaheite.

Mr. Banks saw the operation of _tattowing_ performed upon the backside

of a girl about thirteen years old. The instrument used upon this

occasion had thirty teeth, and every stroke, of which at least a hundred

were made in a minute, drew an ichor or serum a little tinged with

blood. The girl bore it with most stoical resolution for about a quarter

of an hour; but the pain of so many hundred punctures as she had

received in that time then became intolerable: she first complained in

murmurs, then wept, and at last burst into loud lamentations, earnestly

imploring the operator to desist. He was, however, inexorable; and when

she began to struggle, she was held down by two women, who sometimes

soothed and sometimes chid her, and now and then, when she was most

unruly, gave her a smart blow. Mr. Banks staid in a neighbouring house

an hour, and the operation was not over when he went away; yet it was

performed but upon one side, the other having been done some time

before; and the arches upon the loins, in which they most pride

themselves, and which give more pain than all the rest, were still to be

done.

It is strange that these people should value themselves upon what is no

distinction; for I never saw a native of this island, either man or

woman, in a state of maturity, in whom these marks were wanting:

possibly they may have their rise in superstition, especially as they

produce no visible advantage, and are not made without great pain; but

though we enquired of many hundreds, we could never get any account of

the matter.

Their clothing consists of cloth or matting of different kinds, which

will be described among their other manufactures. The cloth which will

not bear wetting they wear in dry weather, and the matting when it

rains: they are put on in many different ways, just as their fancy leads

them; for in their garments nothing is cut into shape, nor are any two

pieces sewed together. The dress of the better sort of women consists of

three or four pieces: one piece, about two yards wide, and eleven yards

long, they wrap several times round their waist, so as to hang down like

a petticoat as low as the middle of the leg, and this they call _Parou_:

two or three other pieces, about two yards and a half long, and one

wide, each having a hole cut in the middle, they place one upon another,

and then putting the head through the holes, they bring the long ends

down before and behind; the others remain open at the sides, and give

liberty to the arms: this, which they call the _Tebuta_, is gathered

round the waist, and confined with a girdle or sash of thinner cloth,

which is long enough to go many times round them, and exactly resembles

the garment worn by the inhabitants of Peru and Chili, which the

Spaniards call _Poncho_. The dress of the men is the same, except that,

instead of suffering the cloth that is wound about the hips to hang down

like a petticoat, they bring it between their legs so as to have some

resemblance to breeches, and it is then called _Maro_. This is the dress

of all ranks of people, and being universally the same as to form, the

gentlemen and ladies distinguish themselves from the lower people by the

quantity; some of them will wrap round them several pieces of cloth,

eight or ten yards long, and two or three broad; and some throw a large

piece loosely over their shoulders, in the manner of a cloak; or perhaps

two pieces, if they are very great personages, and are desirous to

appear in state. The inferior sort, who have only a small allowance of

cloth from the tribes or families to which they belong, are obliged to

be more thinly clad. In the heat of the day, they appear almost naked,

the women having only a scanty petticoat, and the men nothing but the

sash that is passed between their legs and fastened round the waist. As

finery is always troublesome, and particularly in a hot country, where

it consists in putting one covering upon another, the women of rank

always uncover themselves as low as the waist in the evening, throwing

off all that they wear on the upper part of the body, with the same

negligence and ease as our ladies would lay by a cardinal or double

handkerchief. And the chiefs, even when they visited us, though they had

as much cloth round their middle as would clothe a dozen people, had

frequently the rest of the body quite naked.

Upon their legs and feet, they wear no covering; but they shade their

faces from the sun with little bonnets, either of matting or of

cocoa-nut leaves, which they make occasionally in a few minutes. This,

however, is not all their head-dress; the women sometimes wear little

turbans, and sometimes a dress which they value much more, and which,

indeed, is much more becoming, called _Tomou_: the _tomou_ consists of

human hair, plaited in threads, scarcely thicker than sewing silk. Mr.

Banks has pieces of it above a mile in length, without a knot. These

they wind round the head in such a manner as produces a very pretty

effect, and in a very great quantity; for I have seen five or six such

pieces wound about the head of one woman: among these threads they stick

flowers of various kinds, particularly the Cape-jessamine, of which they

have great plenty, as it is always planted near their houses. The men

sometimes stick the tail-feather of the Tropic-bird upright in their

hair, which, as I have observed before, is often tied in a bunch upon

the top of their heads: sometimes they wear a kind of whimsical garland,

made of flowers of various kinds, stuck into a piece of the rind of a

plantain; or of scarlet peas, stuck with gum upon a piece of wood: and

sometimes they wear a kind of wig, made of the hair of men or dogs, or

perhaps of cocoa-nut strings, woven upon one thread, which is tied under

their hair, so that these artificial honours of their head may hang down

behind. Their personal ornaments, besides flowers, are few; both sexes

wear ear-rings but they are placed only on one side: when we came they

consisted of small pieces of shell, stone, berries, red peas, or some

small pearls, three in a string; but our beads very soon supplanted them

all.

The children go quite naked: the girls till they are three or four years

old; and the boys till they are six or seven.

The houses, or rather dwellings, of these people, have been occasionally

mentioned before: they are all built in the wood, between the sea and

the mountains, and no more ground is cleared for each house than just

sufficient to prevent the dropping of the branches from rotting the

thatch with which they are covered; from the house, therefore, the

inhabitant steps immediately under the shade, which is the most

delightful that can be imagined. It consists of groves of bread-fruit

and cocoa-nuts, without underwood, which are intersected, in all

directions, by the paths that lead from one house to the other. Nothing

can be more grateful than this shade in so warm a climate, nor any thing

more beautiful than these walks. As there is no underwood, the shade

cools without impeding the air; and the houses, having no walls, receive

the gale from whatever point it blows. I shall now give a particular

description of a house of a middling size, from which, as the structure

is universally the same, a perfect idea may be formed both of those that

are bigger and those that are less.

The ground which it covers is an oblong square, four-and-twenty feet

long, and eleven wide; over this a roof is raised, upon three rows of

pillars or posts, parallel to each other, one on each side, and the

other in the middle. This roof consists of two flat sides inclining to

each other, and terminating in a ridge, exactly like the roofs of our

thatched houses in England. The utmost height within is about nine feet,

and the eaves on each side reach to within about three feet and a half

of the ground: below this, and through the whole height, at each end, it

is open, no part of it being inclosed with a wall. The roof is thatched

with palm-leaves, and the floor is covered, some inches deep, with soft

hay; over this are laid mats, so that the whole is one cushion, upon

which they sit in the day, and sleep in the night. In some houses,

however, there is one stool, which is wholly appropriated to the master

of the family; besides this, they have no furniture, except a few little

blocks of wood, the upper side of which is hollowed into a curve, and

which serves them for pillows.

The house is indeed principally used as a dormitory; for, except it

rains, they eat in the open air, under the shade of the next tree. The

clothes that they wear in the day serve them for covering in the night:

the floor is the common bed of the whole household, and is not divided

by any partition. The master of the house and his wife sleep in the

middle, next to them the married people, next to them the unmarried

women, and next to them, at a little distance, the unmarried men: the

servants, or _Toutous_, as they are called, sleep in the open air,

except it rains, and in that case they come just within the shade.

There are, however, houses of another kind belonging to the chiefs, in

which there is some degree of privacy. These are much smaller, and so

constructed as to be carried about in their canoes from place to place,

and set up occasionally like a tent: they are enclosed on the sides with

cocoa-nut leaves, but not so close as to exclude the air, and the chief

and his wife sleep in them alone.

There are houses also of a much larger size, not built either for the

accommodation of a single chief, or a single family; but as common

receptacles for all the people of a district. Some of them are two

hundred feet long, thirty broad, and, under the ridge, twenty feet high:

these are built and maintained at the common expence of the district,

for the accommodation of which they are intended; and have on one side

of them a large area, inclosed with low pallisadoes.

These houses, like those of separate families, have no walls. Privacy,

indeed, is little wanted among people who have not even the idea of

indecency, and who gratify every appetite and passion before witnesses,

with no more sense of impropriety than we feel when we satisfy our

hunger at a social board with our family or friends. Those who have no

idea of indecency with respect to actions, can have none with respect to

words; it is, therefore, scarcely necessary to observe, that, in the

conversation of these people, that which is the principal source of

their pleasure is always the principal topic; and that every thing is

mentioned without any restraint or emotion, and in the most direct

terms, by both sexes.

Of the food eaten here the greater part is vegetable. Here are no tame

animals except hogs, dogs, and poultry, as I have observed before, and

these are by no means plenty. When a chief kills a hog, it is almost

equally divided among his dependants; and, as they are very numerous,

the share of each individual at these feasts, which are not frequent,

must necessarily be small. Dogs and fowls fall somewhat more frequently

to the share of the common people. I cannot much commend the flavour of

their fowls; but we all agreed, that a South-sea dog was little inferior

to an English lamb: their excellence is probably owing to their being

kept up, and fed wholly upon vegetables. The sea affords them a great

variety of fish. The smaller fish, when they catch any, are generally

eaten raw, as we eat oysters; and nothing that the sea produces comes

amiss to them: they are fond of lobsters, crabs, and other shell-fish,

which are found upon the coast; and they will eat not only sea-insects,

but what the seamen call _Blubbers_, though some of them are so tough,

that they are obliged to suffer them to become putrid before they can be

chewed. Of the many vegetables that have been mentioned already as

serving them for food, the principal is the bread-fruit, to procure

which costs them no trouble or labour but climbing a tree: the tree

which produces it does not indeed shoot up spontaneously: but if a man

plants ten of them in his lifetime, which he may do in about an hour, he

will as completely fulfil his duty to his own and future generations as

the natives of our less temperate climate can do by ploughing in the

cold of winter, and reaping in the summer’s heat, as often as these

seasons return; even if, after he has procured bread for his present

household, he should convert a surplus into money, and lay it up for his

children.

It is true, indeed, that the bread-fruit is not always in season; but

cocoa-nuts, bananas, plantains, and a great variety of other fruits,

supply the deficiency.

It may well be supposed, that cookery is but little studied by these

people as an art; and, indeed, they have but two ways of applying fire

to dress their food, broiling and baking; the operation of broiling is

so simple that it requires no description, and their baking has been

described already, (page 154.) in the account of an entertainment

prepared for us by Tupia. Hogs, and large fish, are extremely well

dressed in the same manner; and, in our opinion, were more juicy and

more equally done than by any art of cookery now practised in Europe.

Bread-fruit is also cooked in an oven of the same kind, which renders it

soft, and something like a boiled potatoe; not quite so farinaceous as a

good one, but more so than those of the middling sort.

Of the bread-fruit they also make three dishes, by putting either water

or the milk of the cocoa-nut to it, then beating it to a paste with a

stone pestle, and afterwards mixing it with ripe plantains, bananas, or

the sour paste which they call _Mahie_.

The mahie, which has been mentioned as a succedaneum for ripe

bread-fruit, before the season for gathering a fresh crop comes on, is

thus made:

The fruit is gathered just before it is perfectly ripe, and being laid

in heaps, is closely covered with leaves; in this state it undergoes a

fermentation, and becomes disagreeably sweet: the core is then taken out

entire, which is done by gently pulling the stalk, and the rest of the

fruit is thrown into a hole which is dug for that purpose, generally in

the houses, and neatly lined in the bottom and sides with grass; the

whole is then covered with leaves, and heavy stones laid upon them: in

this state it undergoes a second fermentation, and becomes sour, after

which it will suffer no change for many months: it is taken out of the

hole as it is wanted for use, and being made into balls, it is wrapped

up in leaves and baked; after it is dressed, it will keep five or six

weeks. It is eaten both cold and hot, and the natives seldom make a meal

without it, though to us the taste was as disagreeable as that of a

pickled olive generally is the first time it is eaten.

As the making of this mahie depends, like brewing, upon fermentation,

so, like brewing, it sometimes fails, without their being able to

ascertain the cause; it is very natural, therefore, that the making it

should be connected with superstitious notions and ceremonies. It

generally falls to the lot of the old women, who will suffer no creature

to touch any thing belonging to it, but those whom they employ as

assistants, nor even to go into that part of the house where the

operation is carrying on. Mr. Banks happened to spoil a large quantity

of it only by inadvertently touching a leaf which lay upon it. The old

woman, who then presided over these mysteries, told him, that the

process would fail; and immediately uncovered the hole in a fit of

vexation and despair. Mr. Banks regretted the mischief he had done, but

was somewhat consoled by the opportunity which it gave him of examining

the preparation, which perhaps, but for such an accident, would never

have offered.

Such is their food, to which salt water is the universal sauce, no meal

being eaten without it: those who live near the sea have it fetched as

it is wanted; those who live at some distance keep it in large bamboos,

which are set up in their houses for use. Salt water, however, is not

their only sauce; they make another of the kernels of cocoa-nuts, which

being fermented till they dissolve into a paste somewhat resembling

butter, are beaten up with salt water. The flavour of this is very

strong, and was, when we first tasted it, exceedingly nauseous; a little

use, however, reconciled some of our people to it so much, that they

preferred it to our own sauces, especially with fish. The natives seemed

to consider it as a dainty, and do not use it at their common meals;

possibly, because they think it ill management to use cocoa-nuts so

lavishly, or, perhaps, when we were at the island, they were scarcely

ripe enough for the purpose.

For drink, they have in general nothing but water, or the juice of the

cocoa-nut; the art of producing liquors that intoxicate, by

fermentation, being happily unknown among them; neither have they any

narcotic which they chew, as the natives of some other countries do

opium, beetle-root, and tobacco. Some of them drank freely of our

liquors, and in a few instances became very drunk; but the persons to

whom this happened were so far from desiring to repeat the debauch, that

they would never touch any of our liquors afterwards. We were, however,

informed, that they became drunk by drinking a juice that is expressed

from the leaves of a plant which they call _Ava Ava_. This plant was not

in season when we were there, so that we saw no instances of its

effects; and as they considered drunkenness as a disgrace, they probably

would have concealed from us any instances which might have happened

during our stay. This vice is almost peculiar to the chiefs, and

considerable persons, who vie with each other in drinking the greatest

number of draughts, each draught being about a pint. They keep this

intoxicating juice with great care from their women.

Table they have none; but their apparatus for eating is set out with

great neatness, though the articles are too simple and too few to allow

any thing for show; and they commonly eat alone; but when a stranger

happens to visit them, he sometimes makes a second in their mess. Of the

meal of one of their principal people I shall give a particular

description.

He sits down under the shade of the next tree, or on the shady side of

his house, and a large quantity of leaves, either of the bread-fruit or

banana, are neatly spread before him upon the ground as a table-cloth; a

basket is then set by him that contains his provision, which, if fish or

flesh, is ready dressed, and wrapped up in leaves, and two cocoa-nut

shells, one full of salt water, and the other of fresh: his attendants,

which are not few, seat themselves round him, and when all is ready, he

begins by washing his hands and his mouth thoroughly with the fresh

water, and this he repeats almost continually throughout the whole meal;

he then takes part of his provision out of the basket, which generally

consists of a small fish or two, two or three bread-fruits, fourteen or

fifteen ripe bananas, or six or seven apples; he first takes half a

bread-fruit, peels off the rind, and takes out the core with his nails;

of this he puts as much into his mouth as it can hold, and while he

chews it, takes the fish out of the leaves, and breaks one of them into

the salt water, placing the other, and what remains of the bread-fruit,

upon the leaves that have been spread before him. When this is done, he

takes up a small piece of the fish that has been broken into the salt

water, with all the fingers of one hand, and sucks it into his mouth, so

as to get with it as much of the salt water as possible: in the same

manner he takes the rest by different morsels, and between each, at

least very frequently, takes a small sup of the salt water, either out

of the cocoa-nut shell, or the palm of his hand: in the mean time one of

his attendants has prepared a young cocoa-nut, by peeling off the outer

rind with his teeth, an operation which to an European appears very

surprising; but it depends so much upon slight, that many of us were

able to do it before we left the island, and some that could scarcely

crack a filbert: the master, when he chooses to drink, takes the

cocoa-nut thus prepared, and boring a hole through the shell with his

finger, or breaking it with a stone, he sucks out the liquor. When he

has eaten his bread-fruit and fish, he begins with his plantains, one of

which makes but a mouthful, though it be as big as a black-pudding; if,

instead of plantains, he has apples, he never tastes them till they have

been pared; to do this a shell is picked up from the ground, where they

are always in plenty, and tossed to him by an attendant: he immediately

begins to cut or scrape off the rind, but so awkwardly that great part

of the fruit is wasted. If, instead of fish, he has flesh, he must have

some succedaneum for a knife to divide it; and for this purpose a piece

of bamboo is tossed to him, of which he makes the necessary implement by

splitting it transversely with his nail. While all this has been doing,

some of his attendants have been employed in beating bread-fruit with a

stone pestle upon a block of wood; by being beaten in this manner, and

sprinkled from time to time with water, it is reduced to the consistence

of a soft paste, and is then put into a vessel somewhat like a butcher’s

tray, and either made up alone, or mixed with banana or mahie, according

to the taste of the master, by pouring water upon it by degrees and

squeezing it often through the hand: under this operation it acquires

the consistence of a thick custard, and a large cocoa-nut shell full of

it being set before him, he sips it as we should do a jelly if we had no

spoon to take it from the glass: the meal is then finished by again

washing his hands and his mouth. After which the cocoa-nut shells are

cleaned, and every thing that is left is replaced in the basket.

The quantity of food which these people eat at a meal is prodigious: I

have seen one man devour two or three fishes as big as a perch; three

bread-fruits, each bigger than two fists; fourteen or fifteen plantains

or bananas, each of them six or seven inches long, and four or five

round; and near a quart of the pounded bread-fruit, which is as

substantial as the thickest unbaked custard. This is so extraordinary

that I scarcely expect to be believed; and I would not have related it

upon my own single testimony; but Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, and most of

the other gentlemen, have had ocular demonstration of its truth, and

know that I mention them upon the occasion.

It is very wonderful that these people, who are remarkably fond of

society, and particularly that of their women, should exclude its

pleasures from the table, where among all other nations, whether civil

or savage, they have been principally enjoyed. How a meal, which every

where else brings families and friends together, came to separate them

here, we often enquired, but could never learn. They eat alone, they

said, because it was right; but why it was right to eat alone they never

attempted to tell us: such, however, was the force of habit, that they

expressed the strongest dislike, and even disgust, at our eating in

society, especially with our women, and of the same victuals. At first,

we thought this strange singularity arose from some superstitious

opinion; but they constantly affirmed the contrary. We observed also

some caprices in the custom, for which we could as little account as for

the custom itself. We could never prevail with any of the women to

partake of the victuals at our table when we were dining in company; yet

they would go, five or six together, into the servants’ apartments, and

there eat very heartily of whatever they could find, of which I have

before given a particular instance; nor were they in the least

disconcerted if we came in while they were doing it. When any of us have

been alone with a woman, she has sometimes eaten in our company; but

then she has expressed the greatest unwillingness that it should be

known, and always extorted the strongest promises of secrecy.

Among themselves, even two brothers and two sisters have each their

separate baskets, with provision and the apparatus of their meal. When

they first visited us at our tents, each brought his basket with him;

and when we sat down to table, they would go out, sit down upon the

ground, at two or three yards’ distance from each other, and turning

their faces different ways, take their repast without interchanging a

single word.

The women not only abstain from eating with the men, and of the same

victuals, but even have their victuals separately prepared by boys kept

for that purpose, who deposit it in a separate shed, and attend them

with it at their meals.

But though they would not eat with us or with each other, they have

often asked us to eat with them, when we have visited those with whom we

were particularly acquainted at their houses; and we have often upon

such occasions eaten out of the same basket, and drunk out of the same

cup. The elder women, however, always appeared to be offended at this

liberty; and if we happened to touch their victuals, or even the basket

that contained it, would throw it away.

After meals, and in the heat of the day, the middle-aged people of the

better sort generally sleep: they are indeed extremely indolent; and

sleeping and eating is almost all that they do. Those that are older are

less drowsy, and the boys and girls are kept awake by the natural

activity and sprightliness of their age.

Their amusements have occasionally been mentioned in my account of the

incidents that happened during our residence in this island,

particularly music, dancing, wrestling, and shooting with the bow; they

also sometimes vie with each other in throwing a lance. As shooting is

not at a mark, but for distance; throwing the lance is not for distance,

but at a mark: the weapon is about nine feet long, the mark is the bole

of a plantain, and the distance about twenty yards.

Their only musical instruments are flutes and drums; the flutes are made

of a hollow bamboo about a foot long, and, as has been observed before,

have only two stops, and consequently but four notes, out of which they

seem hitherto to have formed but one tune: to these stops they apply the

fore-finger of the left hand and the middle finger of the right.

The drum is made of a hollow block of wood, of a cylindrical form, solid

at one end, and covered at the other with shark’s skin: these they beat

not with sticks, but their hands; and they know how to tune two drums of

different notes into concord. They have also an expedient to bring the

flutes that play together into unison, which is to roll up a leaf so as

to slip over the end of the shortest, like our sliding tubes for

telescopes, which they move up or down till the purpose is answered, of

which they seem to judge by their ear with great nicety.

To these instruments they sing; and, as I have observed before, their

songs are often extempore: they call every two verses or couplet a song,

_Pehay_: they are generally, though not always, in rhime; and when

pronounced by the natives, we could discover that they were metre. Mr.

Banks took great pains to write down some of them which were made upon

our arrival, as nearly as he could express their sounds by combinations

of our letters; but when we read them, not having their accent, we could

scarcely make them either metre or rhime. The reader will easily

perceive that they are of very different structure.

Tede pahai de parow-a

Ha maru no mina.

E pahah Tayo malama tai ya

No Tabane tonatou whannomi ya.

E Turai eattu terara patee whennua toai

Ino o maio Pretane to whennuaia no Tute.

Of these verses our knowledge of the language is too imperfect to

attempt a translation. They frequently amuse themselves by singing such

couplets as these when they are alone, or with their families,

especially after it is dark; for though they need no fires, they are not

without the comfort of artificial light between sunset and bedtime.

Their candles are made of the kernels of a kind of oily nut, which they

stick one over another upon a skewer that is thrust through the middle

of them; the upper one being lighted, burns down to the second, at the

same time consuming that part of the skewer which goes through it; the

second taking fire burns in the same manner down to the third, and so of

the rest: some of these candles will burn a considerable time, and they

give a very tolerable light. They do not often sit up above an hour

after it is dark; but when they have strangers who sleep in the house,

they generally keep a light burning all night, possibly as a check upon

such of the women as they wish not to honour them with their favours.

Of their itinerary concerts I need add nothing to what has been said

already; especially as I shall have occasion more particularly to

mention them when I relate our adventures upon another island.

In other countries, the girls and unmarried women are supposed to be

wholly ignorant of what others upon some occasions may appear to know;

and their conduct and conversation are consequently restrained within

narrower bounds, and kept at a more remote distance from whatever

relates to a connection with the other sex; but here it is just

contrary. Among other diversions, there is a dance, called _Timorodee_,

which is performed by young girls, whenever eight or ten of them can be

collected together, consisting of motions and gestures beyond

imagination wanton, in the practice of which they are brought up from

their earliest childhood, accompanied by words, which, if it were

possible, would more explicitly convey the same ideas. In these dances

they keep time with an exactness which is scarcely excelled by the best

performers upon the stages of Europe. But the practice which is allowed

to the virgin is prohibited to the woman from the moment that she has

put these hopeful lessons in practice, and realized the symbols of the

dance.

It cannot be supposed that, among these people, chastity is held in much

estimation. It might be expected that sisters and daughters would be

offered to strangers, either as a courtesy, or for reward; and that

breaches of conjugal fidelity, even in the wife, should not be otherwise

punished than by a few hard words, or perhaps a slight beating, as

indeed is the case; but there is a scale in dissolute sensuality, which

these people have ascended, wholly unknown to every other nation whose

manners have been recorded from the beginning of the world to the

present hour, and which no imagination could possibly conceive.

A very considerable number of the principal people of Otaheite, of both

sexes, have formed themselves into a society, in which every woman is

common to every man; thus securing a perpetual variety as often as their

inclination prompts them to seek it, which is so frequent, that the same

man and woman seldom cohabit together more than two or three days.

These societies are distinguished by the name of _Arreoy_; and the

members have meetings, at which no other is present, where the men amuse

themselves by wrestling, and the women, notwithstanding their occasional

connection with different men, dance the Timorodee in all its latitude,

as an incitement to desires which it is said are frequently gratified

upon the spot. This, however, is comparatively nothing. If any of the

women happen to be with child, which in this manner of life happens less

frequently than if they were to cohabit only with one man, the poor

infant is smothered the moment it is born, that it may be no incumbrance

to the father, nor interrupt the mother in the pleasures of her

diabolical prostitution. It sometimes indeed happens, that the passion

which prompts a woman to enter into this society is surmounted when she

becomes a mother, by that instinctive affection which nature has given

to all creatures for the preservation of their offspring; but even in

this case she is not permitted to spare the life of her infant, except

she can find a man who will patronise it as his child: if this can be

done, the murder is prevented; but both the man and woman, being deemed

by this act to have appropriated each other, are ejected from the

community, and forfeit all claim to the privileges and pleasures of the

Arreoy for the future; the woman from that time being distinguished by

the term _Whannownow_, “bearer of children,” which is here a term of

reproach; though none can be more honourable in the estimation of wisdom

and humanity, of right reason, and every passion that distinguishes the

man from the brute.

It is not fit that a practice so horrid and so strange should be imputed

to human beings upon slight evidence, but I have such as abundantly

justifies me in the account I have given. The people themselves are so

far from concealing their connection with such a society as a disgrace,

that they boast of it as a privilege; and both myself and Mr. Banks,

when particular persons have been pointed out to us as members of the

Arreoy, have questioned them about it, and received the account that has

been here given from their own lips. They have acknowledged that they

had long been of this accursed society, that they belonged to it at that

time, and that several of their children had been put to death.

But I must not conclude my account of the domestic life of these people

without mentioning their personal cleanliness. If that which lessens the

good of life and increases the evil is vice, surely cleanliness is a

virtue: the want of it tends to destroy both beauty and health, and

mingles disgust with our best pleasures. The natives of Otaheite, both

men and women, constantly wash their whole bodies in running water three

times every day; once as soon as they rise in the morning, once at noon,

and again before they sleep at night, whether the sea or river is near

them or at a distance. I have already observed, that they wash not only

the mouth but the hands at their meals, almost between every morsel; and

their clothes, as well as their persons, are kept without spot or stain;

so that in a large company of these people nothing is suffered but heat,

which, perhaps, is more than can be said of the politest assembly in

Europe.

CHAP. XVIII.

OF THE MANUFACTURES, BOATS, AND NAVIGATION OF OTAHEITE.

IF necessity is the mother of invention, it cannot be supposed to have

been much exerted where the liberality of Nature has rendered the

diligence of Art almost superfluous; yet there are many instances both

of ingenuity and labour among these people, which, considering the want

of metal for tools, do honour to both.

Their principal manufacture is their cloth, in the making and dying of

which I think there are some particulars which may instruct even the

artificers of Great Britain, and for that reason my description will be

more minute.

Their cloth is of three kinds; and it is made of the bark of three

different trees, the Chinese paper mulberry, the bread-fruit tree, and

the tree which resembles the wild fig-tree of the West Indies.

The finest and whitest is made of the paper mulberry, _Aouta_; this is

worn chiefly by the principal people, and when it is dyed red takes a

better colour. A second sort, inferior in whiteness and softness, is

made of the bread-fruit tree, _Ooroo_, and worn chiefly by the inferior

people; and a third of the tree that resembles the fig, which is coarse

and harsh, and of the colour of the darkest brown paper; this, though it

is less pleasing both to the eye and the touch, is the most valuable,

because it resists water, which the other two sorts will not. Of this,

which is the most rare as well as the most useful, the greater part is

perfumed, and worn by the Chiefs as a morning dress.

All these trees are propagated with great care, particularly the

mulberry, which covers the largest part of the cultivated land, and is

not fit for use after two or three years growth, when it is about six or

eight feet high, and somewhat thicker than a man’s thumb; its excellence

is to be thin, straight, tall, and without branches: the lower leaves,

therefore, are carefully plucked off, with their germs, as often as

there is any appearance of their producing a branch.

But though the cloth made of these three trees is different, it is all

manufactured in the same manner; I shall, therefore, describe the

process only in the fine sort, that is made of the mulberry. When the

trees are of a proper size, they are drawn up, and stripped of their

branches, after which the roots and tops are cut off; the bark of these

rods being then slit up longitudinally is easily drawn off, and, when a

proper quantity has been procured, it is carried down to some running

water, in which it is deposited to soak, and secured from floating away

by heavy stones: when it is supposed to be sufficiently softened, the

women servants go down to the brook, and stripping themselves, sit down

in the water, to separate the inner bark from the green part on the

outside; to do this they place the under side upon a flat smooth board,

and with the shell, which our dealers call tyger’s tongue, _tellina

gargadia_, scrape it very carefully, dipping it continually in the water

till nothing remains but the fine fibres of the inner coat. Being thus

prepared in the afternoon, they are spread out upon plantain leaves in

the evening; and in this part of the work there appears to be some

difficulty, as the mistress of the family always superintends the doing

of it: they are placed in lengths of about eleven or twelve yards, one

by the side of another, till they are about a foot broad, and two or

three layers are also laid one upon the other: care is taken that the

cloth shall be in all parts of an equal thickness, so that if the bark

happens to be thinner in any particular part of one layer than the rest,

a piece that is somewhat thicker is picked out to be laid over it in the

next. In this state it remains till the morning, when great part of the

water which it contained when it was laid out, is either drained off or

evaporated, and the several fibres adhere together, so as that the whole

maybe raised from the ground in one piece.

It is then taken away, and laid upon the smooth side of a long piece of

wood, prepared for the purpose, and beaten by the women servants, with

instruments about a foot long and three inches thick, made of a hard

wood which they call _Etoa_. The shape of this instrument is not unlike

a square razor strop, only that the handle is longer, and each of its

four sides or faces is marked, lengthways, with small grooves, or

furrows, of different degrees of fineness; those on one side being of a

width and depth sufficient to receive a small packthread, and the others

finer in a regular gradation, so that the last are not more than equal

to sewing silk.

They beat it first with the coarsest side of this mallet, keeping time

like our smiths; it spreads very fast under the strokes, chiefly however

in the breadth, and the grooves in the mallet mark it with the

appearance of threads; it is successively beaten with the other sides,

last with the finest, and is then fit for use. Sometimes, however, it is

made still thinner, by beating it with the finest side of the mallet,

after it has been several times doubled: it is then called _Hoboo_, and

is almost as thin as a muslin; it becomes very white by being bleached

in the air, but is made still whiter and softer by being washed and

beaten again after it has been worn.

Of this cloth there are several sorts, of different degrees of fineness,

in proportion as it is more or less beaten without being doubled: the

other cloth also differs in proportion as it is beaten; but they differ

from each other in consequence of the different materials of which they

are made. The bark of the bread-fruit is not taken till the trees are

considerably longer and thicker than those of the fig, the process

afterwards is the same.

When cloth is to be washed after it has been worn, it is taken down to

the brook, and left to soak, being kept fast to the bottom, as at first,

by a stone; it is then gently wrung or squeezed; and sometimes several

pieces of it are laid one upon another, and beaten together with the

coarsest side of the mallet, and they are then equal in thickness to

broad-cloth, and much more soft and agreeable to the touch, after they

have been a little while in use, though when they come immediately from

the mallet, they feel as if they had been starched. This cloth sometimes

breaks in the beating, but is easily repaired by pasting on a patch with

a gluten that is prepared from the root of the _Pea_, which is done so

nicely that it cannot be discovered. The women also employ themselves in

removing blemishes of every kind, as our ladies do in needle-work or

knotting; sometimes when their work is intended to be very fine, they

will paste an entire covering of hoboo over the whole. The principal

excellencies of this cloth are its coolness and softness; and its

imperfections, its being pervious to water like paper, and almost as

easily torn.

The colours with which they dye this cloth are principally red and

yellow. The red is exceedingly beautiful, and I may venture to say a

brighter and more delicate colour than any we have in Europe; that which

approaches nearest is our full scarlet, and the best imitation which Mr.

Banks’s natural history painter could produce, was by a mixture of

vermillion and carmine. The yellow is also a bright color, but we have

many as good.

The red colour is produced by the mixture of the juices of two

vegetables, neither of which separately has the least tendency to that

hue. One is a species of fig called here _Matte_, and the other the

_Cordia Sebestina_, or _Etou_; of the fig the fruit is used, and of the

_Cordia_ the leaves.

The fruit of the fig is about as big as a rounceval pea, or very small

gooseberry; and each of them, upon breaking off the stalk very close,

produces one drop of a milky liquor, resembling the juice of our figs,

of which the tree is indeed a species. This liquor the women collect

into a small quantity of cocoa-nut water: to prepare a gill of cocoa-nut

water will require between three and four quarts of these little figs.

When a sufficient quantity is prepared, the leaves of the Etou are well

wetted in it, and then laid upon a plantain leaf, where they are turned

about till they become more and more flaccid, and then they are gently

squeezed, gradually increasing the pressure, but so as not to break

them; as the flaccidity increases, and they become spungy, they are

supplied with more of the liquor; in about five minutes the colour

begins to appear upon the veins of the leaves, and in about ten or a

little more, they are perfectly saturated with it: they are then

squeezed, with as much force as can be applied, and the liquor strained

at the same time that it is expressed.

For this purpose, the boys prepare a large quantity of the Moo, by

drawing it between their teeth, or two little sticks, till it is freed

from the green bark and the branny substance that lies under it, and a

thin web of the fibres only remains; in this the leaves of the Etou are

inveloped, and through these the juice which they contain is strained as

it is forced out. As the leaves are not succulent, little more juice is

pressed out of them than they have imbibed: when they have been once

emptied, they are filled again, and again pressed, till the quality

which tinctures the liquor as it passes through them is exhausted, they

are then thrown away; but the Moo, being deeply stained with the colour,

is preserved, as a brush to lay the dye upon the cloth.

The expressed liquor is always received into small cups made of the

plantain leaf, whether from a notion that it has any quality favourable

to the colour, or from the facility with which it is procured, and the

convenience of small vessels to distribute it among the artificers, I do

not know.

Of the thin cloth they seldom dye more than the edges, but the thick

cloth is coloured through the whole surface; the liquor is indeed used

rather as a pigment than a dye, for a coat of it is laid upon one side

only, with the fibres of the Moo; and though I have seen of the thin

cloth that has appeared to have been soaked in the liquor, the colour

has not had the same richness and lustre, as when it has been applied in

the other manner.

Though the leaf of the Etou is generally used in this process, and

probably produces the finest colour, yet the juice of the figs will

produce a red by a mixture with the species of Tournefortia, which they

call _Taheinoo_, the _Pohuc_, the _Eurhe_, or _Convolvulus

Brasiliensis_, and a species of Solanum called _Ebooa_; from the use of

these different plants, or from different proportions of the materials,

many varieties are observable in the colours of their cloth, some of

which are conspicuously superior to others.

The beauty, however, of the best is not permanent; but it is probable

that some method might be found to fix it, if proper experiments were

made, and perhaps to search for latent qualities, which may be brought

out by the mixture of one vegetable juice with another, would not be an

unprofitable employment: our present most valuable dyes afford

sufficient encouragement to the attempt; for by the mere inspection of

indigo, woad, dyer’s weed, and most of the leaves which are used for the

like purposes, the colours which they yield could never be discovered.

Of this Indian red I shall only add, that the women who have been

employed in preparing or using it, carefully preserve the colour upon

their fingers and nails, where it appears in its utmost beauty, as a

great ornament.

The yellow is made of the bark of the root of the _Morinda citrifolia_,

called _Nono_, by scraping and infusing it in water; after standing some

time, the water is strained and used as a dye, the cloth being dipped

into it. The Morinda, of which this is a species, seems to be a good

subject for examination with a view to dyeing. Brown, in his history of

Jamaica, mentions three species of it, which he says are used to dye

brown; and Rumphius says of the _Bancuda Angustifolia_, which is nearly

allied to our Nono, that it is used by the inhabitants of the East

Indian islands, as a fixing drug for red colours, with which it

particularly agrees.

The inhabitants of this island also dye yellow with the fruit of the

Tamanu; but how the colour is extracted, we had no opportunity to

discover. They have also a preparation with which they dye brown and

black; but these colours are so indifferent, that the method of

preparing them did not excite our curiosity.

Another considerable manufacture is matting of various kinds; some of

which is finer, and better, in every respect, than any we have in

Europe: the coarser sort serves them to sleep upon, and the finer to

wear in wet weather. With the fine, of which there are also two sorts,

much pains is taken, especially with that made of the bark of the

Poerou, the _Hibiscus tiliaceus_ of Linnæus, some of which is as fine as

a coarse cloth; the other sort, which is still more beautiful, they call

_Vanne_; it is white, glossy, and shining, and is made of the leaves of

their _Wharrou_, a species of the _Pandanus_, of which we had no

opportunity to see either the flowers or fruit: they have other matts,

or as they call them _Moeas_, to sit or to sleep upon, which are formed

of a great variety of rushes and grass, and which they make, as they do

every thing else that is plaited, with amazing facility and dispatch.

They are also very dexterous in making basket and wicker work; their

baskets are of a thousand different patterns, many of them exceedingly

neat; and the making them is an art that every one practises, both men

and women: they make occasional baskets and panniers of the cocoa-nut

leaf in a few minutes, and the women who visited us early in a morning

used to send, as soon as the sun was high, for a few of the leaves, of

which they made little bonnets to shade their faces, at so small an

expence of time and trouble, that, when the sun was again low in the

evening, they used to throw them away. These bonnets, however, did not

cover the head, but consisted only of a band that went round it, and a

shade that projected from the forehead.

Of the bark of the Poerou, they make ropes and lines, from the thickness

of an inch to the size of a small packthread: with these they make nets

for fishing: of the fibres of the cocoa-nut they make thread, for

fastening together the several parts of their canoes, and belts, either

round or flat, twisted or plaited; and of the bark of the _Erowa_, a

kind of nettle which grows in the mountains, and is therefore rather

scarce, they make the best fishing lines in the world: with these they

hold the strongest and most active fish, such as Bonetas and Albicores,

which would snap our strongest silk lines in a minute, though they are

twice as thick.

They make also a kind of seine, of a coarse broad grass, the blades of

which are like flags; these they twist and tie together in a loose

manner, till the net, which is about as wide as a large sack, is from

sixty to eighty fathom long: this they haul in shoal smooth water, and

its own weight keeps it so close to the ground that scarcely a single

fish can escape.

In every expedient, indeed, for taking fish, they are exceedingly

ingenious; they make harpoons of cane, and point them with hard wood,

which in their hands strike fish more effectually, than those which are

headed with iron can do in ours, setting aside the advantage of ours

being fastened to a line, so that the fish is secured if the hook takes

place, though it does not mortally wound him.

Of fish-hooks they have two sorts, admirably adapted in their

construction as well to the purpose they are to answer, as to the

materials of which they are made. One of these, which they call _Wittee

Wittee_, is used for towing. The shank is made of mother-of-pearl, the

most glossy that can be got: the inside, which is naturally the

brightest, is put behind. To these hooks a tuft of white dog’s or hog’s

hair is fixed, so as somewhat to resemble the tail of a fish; these

implements, therefore, are both hook and bait, and are used with a rod

of bamboo, and line of _Erowa_. The fisher, to secure his success,

watches the flight of the birds which constantly attend the Bonetas when

they swim in shoals, by which he directs his canoe, and when he has the

advantage of these guides, he seldom returns without a prize.

The other kind of hook is also made of mother-of-pearl, or some other

hard shell: they cannot make them bearded like our hooks; but to effect

the same purpose, they make the point turn inwards. These are made of

all sizes, and used to catch various kinds of fish with great success.

The manner of making them is very simple, and every fisherman is his own

artificer: the shell is first cut into square pieces, by the edge of

another shell, and wrought into a form corresponding with the outline of

the hook by pieces of coral, which are sufficiently rough to perform the

office of a file; a hole is then bored in the middle; the drill being no

other than the first stone they pick up that has a sharp corner: this

they fix into the end of a piece of bamboo, and turn it between the

hands like a chocolate-mill; when the shell is perforated, and the hole

sufficiently wide, a small file of coral is introduced, by the

application of which the hook is in a short time completed, few costing

the artificer more time than a quarter of an hour.

Of their masonry, carving, and architecture, the reader has already

formed some idea from the account that has been given of the Morais, or

repositories of the dead: the other most important article of building

and carving is their boats; and perhaps, to fabricate one of their

principal vessels with their tools is as great a work, as to build a

British man of war with ours.

They have an adze of stone; a chissel, or gouge of bone, generally that

of a man’s arm between the wrist and elbow; a rasp of coral; and the

skin of a sting-ray, with coral sand, as a file or polisher.

This is a complete catalogue of their tools, and with these they build

houses, construct canoes, hew stone, and fell, cleave, carve, and polish

timber.

The stone which makes the blade of their adzes is a kind of Basaltes, of

a blackish or grey colour, not very hard, but of considerable toughness:

they are formed of different sizes; some, that are intended for felling,

weigh from six to eight pounds; others, that are used for carving, not

more than so many ounces; but it is necessary to sharpen both almost

every minute; for which purpose, a stone and a cocoa-nut shell full of

water are always at hand.

Their greatest exploit, to which these tools are less equal than to any

other, is felling a tree: this requires many hands, and the constant

labour of several days. When it is down, they split it, with the grain,

into planks from three to four inches thick, the whole length and

breadth of the tree, many of which are eight feet in the girt, and forty

to the branches, and nearly of the same thickness throughout. The tree

generally used is, in their language, called _Avie_, the stem of which

is tall and straight; though some of the smaller boats are made of the

bread-fruit tree, which is a light spongy wood, and easily wrought. They

smooth the plank very expeditiously and dexterously with their adzes,

and can take off a thin coat from a whole plank without missing a

stroke. As they have not the art of warping a plank, every part of the

canoe, whether hollow or flat, is shaped by hand.

The canoes, or boats, which are used by the inhabitants of this and the

neighbouring islands, may be divided into two general classes; one of

which they call _Ivahahs_, the other _Pahies_.

The Ivahah is used for short excursions to sea, and is wall-sided and

flat-bottomed; the Pahie for longer voyages, and is bow-sided and

sharp-bottomed. The Ivahas are all of the same figure, but of different

sizes, and used for different purposes: their length is from seventy-two

feet to ten, but the breadth is by no means in proportion; for those of

ten feet are about a foot wide, and those of more than seventy are

scarcely two. There is the fighting Ivahah, the fishing Ivahah, and the

travelling Ivahah; for some of these go from one island to another. The

fighting Ivahah is by far the longest, and the head and stern are

considerably raised above the body, in a semicircular form; particularly

the stern, which is sometimes seventeen or eighteen feet high, though

the boat itself is scarcely three. These never go to sea single; but are

fastened together, side by side, at the distance of about three feet, by

strong poles of wood, which are laid across them and lashed to the

gunwales. Upon these, in the forepart, a stage or platform is raised,

about ten or twelve feet long, and somewhat wider than the boats, which

is supported by pillars about six feet high: upon this stage stand the

fighting men, whose missile weapons are slings and spears; for, among

other singularities in the manners of these people, their bows and

arrows are used only for diversion, as we throw quoits: below these

stages sit the rowers, who receive from them those that are wounded, and

furnish fresh men to ascend in their room. Some of these have a platform

of bamboos or other light wood, through their whole length, and

considerably broader, by means of which they will carry a great number

of men; but we saw only one fitted in this manner.

The fishing Ivahahs vary in length from about forty feet to the smallest

size, which is about ten; all that are of the length of twenty-five feet

and upwards, of whatever sort, occasionally carry sail. The travelling

Ivahah is always double, and furnished with a small neat house, about

five or six feet broad, and six or seven feet long, which is fastened

upon the fore-part for the convenience of the principal people, who sit

in them by day, and sleep in them at night. The fishing Ivahahs are

sometimes joined together, and have a house on board; but this is not

common.

Those which are shorter than five and twenty feet, seldom or never carry

sail; and, though the stern rises about four or five feet, have a flat

head, and a board that projects forward about four feet.

The Pahie is also of different sizes, from sixty to thirty feet long;

but, like the Ivahah, is very narrow. One that I measured was fifty-one

feet long, and only one foot and a half wide at the top. In the widest

part, it was about three feet; and this is the general proportion. It

does not, however, widen by a gradual swell; but the sides being

straight and parallel, for a little way below the gunwale, it swells

abruptly, and draws to a ridge at the bottom; so that a transverse

section of it has somewhat the appearance of the mark upon cards called

a Spade, the whole being much wider in proportion to its length. These,

like the largest Ivahahs, are used for fighting; but principally for

long voyages. The fighting Pahie, which is the largest, is fitted with

the stage or platform, which is proportionably larger than those of the

Ivahah, as their form enables them to sustain a much greater weight.

Those that are used for sailing are generally double; and the middle

size are said to be the best sea-boats. They are sometimes out a month

together, going from island to island; and sometimes, as we were

credibly informed, they are a fortnight or twenty days at sea, and could

keep it longer if they had more stowage for provisions, and

conveniencies to hold fresh water.

When any of these boats carry sail single, they make use of a log of

wood, which is fastened to the end of two poles that lie cross the

vessel, and project from six to ten feet, according to the size of the

vessel, beyond its side, somewhat like what is used by the flying Proa

of the Ladrone Islands, and called in the account of Lord Anson’s

Voyage, an Outrigger. To this outrigger the shrouds are fastened, and it

is essentially necessary in trimming the boat when it blows fresh.

Some of them have one mast, and some two; they are made of a single

stick, and when the length of the canoe is thirty feet, that of the mast

is somewhat less than five-and-twenty; it is fixed to a frame that is

above the canoe, and receives a sail of matting about one-third longer

than itself: the sail is pointed at the top, square at the bottom, and

curved at the side; somewhat resembling what we call a shoulder of

mutton sail, and used for boats belonging to men of war: it is placed in

a frame of wood, which surrounds it on every side, and has no

contrivance either for reefing or furling; so that, if either should

become necessary, it must be cut away, which, however, in these equal

climates, can seldom happen. At the top of the mast are fastened

ornaments of feathers, which are placed inclining obliquely forwards;

the shape and position of which will be conceived at once from the

figure, in one of the cuts.

The oars or paddles that are used with these boats, have a long handle

and a flat blade, not unlike a baker’s peel. Of these every person in

the boat has one, except those that sit under the awning; and they push

her forward with them at a good rate. These boats, however, admit so

much water at the seams, that one person at least is continually

employed in throwing it out. The only thing in which they excel is

landing, and putting off from the shore in a surf: by their great length

and high sterns they land dry, when our boats could scarcely land at

all; and have the same advantages in putting off by the height of the

head.

The Ivahahs are the only boats that are used by the inhabitants of

Otaheite; but we saw several Pahies that came from other islands. Of one

of these I shall give the exact dimensions from a careful admeasurement,

and then particularly describe the manner in which they are built.

Feet. Inches.

Extreme length from stem to stern, not reckoning the 51 0

bending up of either

Breadth in the clear of the top forward 1 2

Breadth in the midships 1 6

Breadth aft 1 3

In the bilge forward 2 8

In the midships 2 11

Aft 2 9

Depth in the midships 3 4

Height from the ground on which she stood 3 6

Height of her head from the ground, without the figure 4 4

Height of the figure 0 11

Height of the stern from the ground 8 9

Height of the figure 2 0

[Illustration: Drawing of Vessel]

To illustrate my description of the manner in which these vessels are

built, it will be necessary to refer to the figure; in which _a a_ is

the first seam, _b b_ the second, and _c c_ the third.