1769. CHAP. XVII. A particular Defcription of the Island; its Produce and W domeftic Life and Amusements. E found the longitude of Port-Royal bay, in this ifland, as fettled 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° 30′ this being the mean result of a great number of observations made upon the spot. The island is furrounded by a reef of coral rock, which forms several excellent bays and harbours, fome of which have been particularly defcribed, where there is room and depth of water for any number of the largest fhips. 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 fouth from Point Venus. To fail into it, either keep the weft point of the reef that lies before Point Venus, clofe 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 an half of water. The best anchoring is on the eastern side of the bay, where there is fixteen and fourteen fathom upon an oufey. bottom. The fhore of the bay is a fine fandy beach, behind which runs a river of fresh water, fo that any number of ships may water here without incommoding each other; but the only wood for firing, upon the whole ifland, 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 fome harbours to the weftward 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 fea, is very uneven; it rifes in ridges that run up into the middle of the island, and there form mountains, which may be feen at the distance of fixty miles: between the foot of these ridges and the fea, is a border of low land, furrounding the whole island, except in a few places where the ridges rife 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 foil, 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, fome of which are of a ftately growth and thick foliage, fo as to form one continued wood; and even the tops of the ridges, though in general they are bare, and burnt up by the fun, are, in fome parts, not without their produce. The low land that lies between the foot of the ridges and the fea, and fome of the vallies, are the only parts of the ifland 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 fix thousand seven hundred and eighty fighting men, from which the number of inhabitants may easily be computed. The 1759. 1769. Produce. The produce of this ifland is bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, bananas, of thirteen forts, the beft we had ever eaten; plantains; a fruit not unlike an apple, which, when ripe, is very pleasant; fweet potatoes, yams, cocoas, a kind of Arum; a fruit known here by the name of Jambu, and reckoned most delicious; fugar cane, which the inhabitants eat raw; a root of the falop 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 roafted, eats very much like a chefnut, by the natives called Ahee; a tree called Wharra, called in the Eaft Indies Pandanes, which produces fruit, fomething like the pine-apple; a shrub called Nons; the Morinda, which also produces fruit; a fpecies of fern, of which the root is eaten, and fometimes 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 fcarcity. All these, which ferve the inhabitants for food, the earth produces fpontaneously, or with fo little culture, that they feem to be exempted from the first general curfe, that “man should eat his bread in the fweat of his brow." They have alfo the Chinese paper mulberry, morus papyrifera,. which they call Aouta; a tree resembling the wild fig-tree of the West Indies; another fpecies of fig, which they call Matte; the cordia febeftina orientalis, which they call Etou; a kind of Cyperus grafs, which they call Moo; a fpecies of tournefortia, which they call Taheinoo; another of the convolvulus poluce, which they call Eurbe; the folanum centifolium, which they call Ebooa; the calophyllum mophylum, which they call Tamannu; the bibifcus tiliaceus, called Poerou, a frutefcent 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 fubfequent part of this work. They They have no European fruit, garden stuff, pulse, or legumes, nor grain of any kind. Of tame animal's they have only hogs, dogs, and poultry; neither is there a wild animal in the ifland, except ducks, pigeons, paroquets, with a few other birds, and rats, there being no other quadruped, nor any ferpent. But the fea fupplies them with great variety of moft excellent fish, to eat which is their chief luxury, and to catch it their principal labour. 1769. As to the people they are of the largest fize of Europeans. Perfons; The men are tall, ftrong, well-limbed, and finely fhaped. The tallest that we faw was a man upon a neighbouring ifland, called HUAHEINE, who measured fix feet three inches and an half. The women of the fuperior rank are also in general above our middle ftature, but those of the inferior class are rather below it, and fome of them are very small. This defect in fize probably proceeds from their early commerce with men, the only thing in which they differ from their fuperiors, that could poffibly 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 fun, it is confiderably deepened, but in others that live under fhelter, especially the fuperior class of women, it continues of its native hue, and the skin is most delicately smooth and foft; they have no tint in their cheeks, which we distinguish by the name of colour. The fhape 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 correfpond with our ideas of beauty is the nofe, which, in general, is fomewhat flat; but their eyes, especially thofe of the women, are full of expreffion, fometimes fparkling with fire, Bb 2 1789. Drefs, fire, and fometimes melting with foftness; their teeth also are, almost without exception, moft 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 reft perfectly clean and neat. Both fexes alfo eradicate every hair from under their arms, and accufed us of great uncleanliness for not doing the fame. In their motions there is at once vigour and ease; their walk is graceful, their deportment liberal, and their behaviour to ftrangers and to each other affable and courteous. In their difpofitions alfo, they feemed to be brave, open, and candid, without either suspicion or treachery, cruelty or revenge; so that we placed the fame confidence in them as in our best friends, many of us, particularly Mr. Banks, fleeping 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 fix perfons, like one that was met by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander on the 24th of April, in their walk to the eastward, whose fkins were of a dead white, like the nofe of a white horfe;: with white hair, beard, brows, and eye-lashes; red, tender eyes; a fhort fight, and fcurfy skins, covered with a kind of white down; but we found that no two of these belonged to the fame family, and therefore concluded, that they were not a fpecies, 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 them |