March.

observing that some of them when they came off to us were 1770. marked in patches with a white flowery appearance upon different parts of their bodies, we thought that they were leperous, or highly fcorbutic; but upon examination we found that these marks were owing to their having been wetted by the spray of the sea in their passage, which, when it was dried away, left the falts behind it in a fine white powder.

Another proof of health, which we have mentioned upon a former occafion, is the facility with which the wounds healed that had left fcars behind them, and that we faw in a recent state; when we faw the man who had been shot with a musket ball through the fleshy part of his arm, his wound seemed to be fo well digefted, and in so fair a way of being perfectly healed, that if I had not known no application had been made to it, I should certainly have enquired, with a very interested curiosity, after the vulnerary herbs and furgical art of the country.

A farther proof that human nature is here untainted with disease, is the great number of old men that we saw, many of whom, by the lofs of their hair and teeth, appeared to be very ancient, yet none of them were decrepit, and though not equal to the young in mufcular ftrength, were not a whit behind them in cheerfulness and vivacity.

VOL. III.

H

CHAP.

1770. March.

Canoes.

CHA P. X.

Of the Canoes and Navigation of the Inhabitants of New Zealand; their Tillage, Weapons, and Mufic: Government, Religion, and Language: With fome Reasons against the Existence of a Southern Continent.

HE ingenuity of these people appears in nothing more than in their canoes: they are long and narrow,

TH ingenuity of these and

in fhape very much refemble a New England whale boat: the larger fort feem to be built chiefly for war, and will earry from forty to eighty, or an hundred armed men. We measured one which lay afhore at Tolaga: fhe was fixty ́eight feet and an half long, five feet broad, and three feet and an half deep; the bottom was fharp, with strait fides like a wedge, and consisted of three lengths, hollowed out to about two inches, or an inch and an half thick, and well fastened together with ftrong plaiting each fide confifted of one intire plank, fixty-three feet long, ten or twelve inches broad, and about an inch and quarter thick, and these were fitted and lafhed to the bottom part with grear dexterity and ftrength. A confiderable number of thwarts were laid from gunwale to gunwale, to which they were fecurely lafhed on each fide, as a ftrengthening to the boat. The ornament at the head projected five or fix feet beyond the body, and was about four feet and an half high; the ornament at the stern was fixed upon that end, as the sternpost of a ship is upon her keel, and was about fourteen feet high, two feet broad, and an inch and an half thick. They both.

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