1767. July.

not only readily and openly trafficked with our people for perfonal favours, but were brought down by their fathers and brothers for that purpose: they were, how. ever, confcious of the value of beauty, and the size of the nail that was demanded for the enjoyment of the lady, was always in proportion to her charms. The men who came down to the fide of the river, at the same time that they presented the girl, fhewed a stick of the fize of the nail that was to be her price, and if our people agreed, she was fent over to them, for the men were not permitted to cross the river. This commerce was carried on a confiderable time before the officers difcovered it; for while fome ftraggled a little way to receive the lady, the others kept a look-out. When I was acquainted with it, I no longer wondered that the thip was in danger of being pulled to pieces for the nails and iron that held her together, which I had before puzzled myself to account for in vain, the whole ship's company having daily as much fresh provision and fruit as they could eat. Both men and women are not only decently but gracefully clothed, in a kind of white cloth, that is made of the bark of a fhrub, and very much re fembles coarse China paper. Their dress consists of two pieces of this cloth: one of them, a hole having been made in the middle to put the head through, hangs down from the shoulders to the mid-leg before and behind; another pice, which is between four and five yards long, and about one yard broad, they wrap round the body in a very easy manner. This cloth is not woven, but is made, like paper, of the macerated fibres of an inner bark, fpread out and beaten together. Their ornaments are feathers, flowers, pieces of shells, and pearls: the pearls are worn chiefly by the women, from whom I purchased about two dozen of a small size: they were of a good colour, but were all spoiled by boring. Mr. Furneaux faw feveral in his excurfion to the weft, but he could purchafe none with any thing he had to offer. I obferved, that it was here a univerfal cuftom both for men and women to have the hinder part of their thighs and loins marked very thick with black lines in various forms. Thefe marks were made by ftriking the teeth of an instrument, fomewhat like a comb, juft through the fkin, and rubbing into the pun&tures a kind of paste made of foot and oil, which leaves an indelible ftain.

The

The boys and girls, under twelve years of age, are not marked; but we obferved a few of the men whofe legs were marked in chequers by the fame method, and they appeared to be perfons of fuperior rank and authority. One of the principal attendants upon the Queen appeared much more disposed to imitate our manners than the reft; and our people, with whom he foon became a favourite, distinguished him by the name of Jonathan. This man Mr. Furneaux clothed compleatly in an English dress, and it fat very easy upon him. Our officers were always carried on fhore, it being fhoal water where we landed, and Jonathan, affuming new ftate with his new finery, made fome of his people carry. him on fhore in the fame manner. He very foon attempted to use a knife and fork at his meals, but at first, when he had ftuck a morfel upon his fork, and tried to feed himself with that inftrument, he could not guide it, but by the mere force of habit his hand came to his mouth, and the victuals at the end of the fork went away to his ear.

Their food consists of pork, poultry, dogs flesh, and fish, bread-fruit, bananas, plantains, yams, apples, and a four fruit which, though not pleasant by itself, gives an agreeable relish to roafted bread-fruit, with which it is frequently beaten up. They have abun dance of rats, but, as far as I could difcover, thefe make no part of their food. The river affords them good mullet, but they are neither large nor in plenty. They find conchs, muscles, and other shell-fish on the reef, which they gather at low water, and eat raw with bread-fruit before they come on fhore. They have alfo very fine cray-fish, and they catch with lines, and hooks of mother of pearl, at a little distance from the shore, parrot fish, groopers, and many other forts, of which they are fo fond that we could feldom prevail upon them to fell us a few at any price. They have alfo nets of an enormous size, with very small meshes, and with these they catch abundance of small fish about the fize of fardines; but while they were using both nets and lines with great fuccefs, we could not catch a single fish with either. We procured fome of their hooks and lines, but for want of their art we were still disappointed.

1767.

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1767.

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The manner in which they drefs their food is this: they kindle a fire by rubbing the end of one piece of dry wood upon the fide of another, in the fame manner as our carpenters whet a chiffel; then they dig a pit about half a foot deep, and two or three yards in circumference: they pave the bottom with large pebble. ftones, which they lay down very smooth and even, and then kindle a fire in it with dry wood, leaves, and the hufks of the cocoa-nut. When the stones are sufficiently heated, they take out the embers, and rake up the afhes on every fide; then they cover the ftones with a layer of green cocoa-nut-tree leaves, and wrap up the animal that is to be dreffed, in the leaves of the plantain; if it is a small hog they wrap it up whole, if a large one they split it. When it is placed in the pit, they cover it with the hot embers, and lay upon them bread-fruit and yams, which are alfo wrapped up in the leaves of the plaintain; over thefe they spread the remainder of the embers, mixing among them some of the hot ftones, with more cocoa-nut-tree leaves upon them, and then clofe all up with earth, fo that the heat is kept in. After a time proportioned to the fize of what is dreffing, the oven is opened, and the meat taken out, which is tender, full of gravy, and, in my opini on, better in every other refpect than when it is dreffed any other way. Excepting the fruit, they have no fauce but falt water, nor any knives but thells, with which they carve very dexterously, always cutting from them. It is impoffible to defcribe the aftonishment they expreffed when they faw the Gunner, who, while he kept the market, used to dine on fhore, drefs his pork and poultry by boiling them in a pot; having, as I have before observed, no veffel that would bear the fire, they had no idea of hot water or its effects: but from the time that the old man was in poffeffion of an iron pot, he and his friends eat boiled meat every day. The iron pots, which I afterwards gave to the Queen, and several of the Chiefs, were alfo in conftant ufe, and brought as many people together as a monfter or a puppet fhow in a country fair. They appeared to have no liquor for drinking but water, and to be happily ignorant of the art of fermenting the juice of any vegetable, fo as to give it an intoxicating quality: they have, as

has

has been already obferved, the fugar-cane, but they feemed to make no other use of it than to chew, which they do not do habitually, but only break a piece off when they happen to pafs by a place where it is growing.

Of their domestic life and amufements, we had not fufficient opportunity to obtain much knowledge, but they appear sometimes to have wars with each other, not only from their weapons, but the fcars with which many of them were marked, and fome of which appeared to be the remains of very confiderable wounds, made with stones, bludgeons, or fome other obtufe weapon: by these fcars also they appear to be no inconfiderable proficients in furgery, of which indeed we happened to have more direct evidence. One of our feamen, when he was on fhore, run a large splinter into his foot, and the Surgeon being on board, one of his comrades endeavoured to take it out with a pen-knife; but after putting the poor fellow to a good deal of pain, was obliged to give it over. Our good old Indian, who happened to be prefent, then called over one of his countrymen that was ftanding on the oppofite fide of the river, who having looked at the feaman's foot, went immediately down to the beach, and taking up a shell, broke it to a point with his teeth; with this inftrument, in little more than a minute, he laid open the place, and extracted the splinter; in the mean time the old who, as foon as he had called the other over, went a little way into the wood, returned with fome gum, which he applied to the wound upon a piece of the cloth that was wrapped round him, and in two days time it was perfectly healed. We afterwards learned that this gum was produced by the apple-tree, and our Surgeon procured fome of it, and used it as a vulnerary balfam with great success.

man,

The habitations of these happy people I have defcribed already; and befides thefe, we faw feveral fheds inclofed within a wall, on the outside of which there were feveral uncouth figures of men, women, hogs, and dogs, carved on pofts, that were driven into the ground. Several of the natives were from time to time seen to enter these places, with a flow pace and dejected countenance, from which we conjectured that they were repofitories of the dead. The area within the walls of

thefe

1767.

July.

1767. thefe places, was generally well paved with large round July. ftones, but it appeared not to be much trodden, for the grafs every where grew up between them. I endeavoured, with particular attention, to difcover whether they had a religious worship among them, but never could find the leaft traces of any.

Two

The boats or canoes of thefe people are of three different forts. Some are made out of a single tree, and carry from two to fix men: thefe are used chiefly for fishing, and we conftantly faw many of them bufy upon the reef: fome were constructed of planks, very dexterously sewed together these were of different fizes, and would carry from ten to forty men. of them were generally lashed together, and two masts set up between them; if they were single, they had an out-rigger on one fide, and only one maft in the middle. With thefe veffels they fail far beyond the fight of land, probably to other iflands, and bring home plantains, bananas, and yams, which feem alfo to be more plenty upon other parts of this ifland, than that off which the fhip lay. A third fort feem to be intended principally for pleasure and fhow they are very large, but have no fail, and in fhape refemble the gondolas of Venice: the middle is covered with a large awning, and fome of the people fit upon it, fome under it. None of thefe veffels came near the ship, except on the first and second day after our arrival; but we faw, three or four times a week, a proceffion of eight or ten of them paffing at a distance, with streamers flying, and a great number of small canoes attending them, while many hundreds of people ran a-breast of them along the fhore. They generally rowed to the outward point of a reef which lay about four miles to the weft ward of us, where they stayed about an hour, and then returned. Thefe proceffions, however, are never made but in fine weather, and all the people on board are dreffed; though in the other canoes they have only a piece of cloth wrapped round their middle. Thofe who rowed and fteered were dreffed in white; those who fat upon the awning and under it in white and red, and two men, who were mounted on the prow of each veffel, were dreffed in red only. We fometimes went out to obferve them in our boats, and though we

were