a fhade that projected from the forehead.

Of the bark of the Poeron they make ropes and lines, from the thickness of an inch, to the fize of a fmall packthread: with thefe they make nets for fifhing: of the fibres of the cocoa-nut they make thread, for faftening together the feveral parts of their canoes, and belts, either round or flat, twifted or plaited; and of the bark of the Erowa, a kind of nettle which grows in the mountains, and is therefore rather fcarce, they make the best fishing-lines in the world: with these they hold the ftrongest and most active fish, fuch as bonetas and albicores, which would fnap our strongest filk lines in a minute, though they are twice as thick.

They make alfo a kind of feine, of a coarfe broad grafs, the blades of which are like flags: thefe they twift and tie together in a loofe manner, till the net, which is about as wide as a large fack, is from fixty to eighty fathom long: this they haul in fhoal smooth water, and its own weight keeps it fo clofe to the ground, that fcarcely a fingle 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 ftrike fith more effectually, than thofe which are headed with iron can do in ours, fetting afide the advantage of ours being faftened to a line, fo that the fish is fecured if the hook takes place, though it does not mortally wound him.

Of fish hooks they have two forts, admirably adapted in their conftruction as well to the purpofe

they are to anfwer, as to the materials of which they are made. One of thefe, which they call Wittee Wittes, is ufed for towing. The thank is made of mother-of-pearl, the moft gloffy that can be got: the infide, which is naturally the brighteft, is put behind. To these hooks a tuft of white dog's or hog's hair is fixed, fo as fomewhat to refemble 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 fifher, to fecure his fuccefs, watches the flight of the birds which conftantly attend the bonetas when they fwim in fhoals, by which he directs his canoe, and when he has the advantage of these guides, he feldom returns without a prize.

The other kind of hook is allo made of mother-of-pearl, or fome other hard hell: they cannot make them bearded like our hooks; but to effect the fame purpose, they make the point turn inwards. Thefe are made of all fizes, and ufed to catch various kinds of fish, with great fuccefs. The manner of making them is very fimple, and every fisherman is his own artificer: the fhell is first cut into fquare pieces by the edge of another fhell, and wrought into a form correfponding with the outline of the hook by pieces of coral, which are fufficiently rough to perform the office of a file; a hole is then bored in the middle, the drill being no other than the firft ftone they pick up that has a fharp corner: this they fix into the end of a piece of bamboo, and turn it between the hands like a chocolate mill: when the hell is perforated, and the hole fufficiently wide, a fmall file of C 2

coral

coral is introduced, by the appliIcation of which the hook is in a fhort time completed, few cofting the artificer more time than a quarter of an hour.

Of their masonry, carving, and architecture, the reader has already formed fome idea from the account that has been given of the Morais, or repofitories of the dead: the other most important article of building and carving is their boats; and perhaps, to fabricate one of their principal veffels with their tools, is as great a work, as to build a British man of war with

ours.

They have an adze of ftone; a chiffel, or gouge, of bone, generally that of a man's arm between the wrist and elbow; a rafp of coral; and the fkin of a fting-ray, with coral-fand, as a file or polifher.

This is a complete catalogue of their tools, and with these they build houses, construct canoes, hew ftone, and fell, cleave, carve, and polish timber.

The ftone which makes the blade of their adzes is a kind of Bafaltes, of a blackish or grey colour, not very hard, but of confiderable toughness; they are formed of different fizes; fome, that are intended for felling, weigh from fix to eight pounds; others, that are used for carving, not more than fo many ounces; but it is neceffary to fharpen both almost every minute; for which purpose, a ftone and a

cocoa-nut fhell full of water are always at hand.

Their greatest exploit, to which thefe tools are lefs equal than to any other, is felling a tree: this requires many hands, and the conftant labour of feveral 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 fame thickness throughout. The tree generally used is in their language called Avie, the ftem of which is tall and firait; though fome of the fmaller boats are made of the bread-fruit tree, which is a light fpongy wood, and easily wrought. They fmooth the plank very expeditiously and dexterously with their adzes, and can take off a thin coat from a whole plank, without miffing a stroke. As they have not the art of warping a plank, every part of the canoe, whether hollow or flat, is fhaped by hand.

The canoes, or boats, which are used by the inhabitants of this and the neighbouring islands, may be divided into two general claffes one of which they call Ivahabs, the other Pabies.

The Ivahah is used for fhort excurfions to fea, and is wall-fided and flat-bottomed; the Pahie for longer voyages, and is bow-fided and fharp-bottomed. The Ivahahs are all of the fame figure, but of different fizes, and used for different purposes: the length is from feventy-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 feventy are scarcely two. There is the fighting Ivahah, the fishing Ivahah, and the travelling Ivahah; for fome of these go from one ifland to another. The fighting Ivahah is by far the longest, and the head and ftern are confderably raised above the body, in

a femi

When any of these boats carry fail fingle, they make ufe of a log of wood, which is fastened to the end of two poles that lie across the veffel, and project from fix to ten feet, according to the fize of the veffel, beyond its fide, fomewhat like what is ufed by the flying Proa of the Ladrone islands, and called in the account of Lord Anion's voyage, an Outrigger. To this outrigger the fhrouds are fastened, and it is effentially neceffary in trimming the boat when it blows fresh.

Some of them have one mast, and fome two; they are made of a fingle flick, and when the length of the canoe is thirty feet, that of the maft is fomewhat lefs than fiveand-twenty; it is fixed to a frame that is above the canoe, and receives a fail of matting about one third longer than itself: the fail is pointed at the top, fquare at the bottom, and curved at the fide; fomewhat refembling what we call a fhoulder of mutton fail, and used for boats belonging to men of war: it is placed in a frame of wood, which furrounds it on every fide, and has no contrivance either for reefing or furling; fo that, if either should become neceffary, it must be cut away, which, however, in these equal climates, can feldom happen. At the top of the maft are fastened ornaments of feathers, which are placed inclining obliquely forwards; the fhape and pofition of which will be conceived at once from the figure, in one of the cuts.

The oars or paddles that are ufed with thefe boats, have a long handle, and a flat blade, not unlike a baker's peel. Of thefe every perfon in the boat has one, except

thofe that fit under the awning; and they push her forward with them at a good rate. These boats, however, admit fo much water at the feams, that one perfon at leaft is continually employed in throw. ing 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 fterns they land dry, when our boats could fcarcely land at all; and have the fame advantages in putting off by the height of the head.

As connected with the naviga tion of these people, I fhall mention their wonderful fagacity in foretelling the weather, at least the quarter from which the wind shall blow at a future time; they have feveral ways of doing this, of which however I know but one. They fay, that the milky-way is always curved laterally; but fometimes in one direction, and fometimes in another and that this curvature is the effect of its being already acted upon by the wind, and its hollow part therefore towards it; fo that, if the fame curvature continues a night, a correfponding wind certainly blows the next day. Of their rules, I fhall not pretend to judge; but I know that, by whatever means, they can predict the weather, at least the wind, with much greater certainty than we can.

In their longer voyages, they fteer by the fun in the day, and in the night by the stars; all of which they diftinguish feparately by names, and know in what part of the heavens they will appear in any of the months during which they are vifible in their horizon; they also know the time of their annual appearing

and

and disappearing, with more precifion than will eafily be believed by an European astronomer.

[We must pass over many other curious particulars, relative to this extraordinary people, to give fuch an account as could be procured of their form of government. Our author proceeds as follows.]

Though I dare not affert that thefe people, to whom the art of writing, and confequently the recording of laws, are utterly unknown, live under a regular form of government; yet a fubordination is established among them, that greatly resembles the early fate of every nation in Europe under the feudal fyftem, which fecured liberty in the most licentious excefs to a few, and entailed the most abject flavery upon the rest.

Their orders are, Earee rahie, -which answers to king; Earee, baron; Manahouni, vaffal; and Toutou, villain. The Earée rahie, of which there are two in this island, one being the fovereign of each of the peninfulas of which it confifts, is treated with great respect by all Janks, but did not appear to us to be invested with fo much power as was exercised by the Earees in their own districts; nor indeed did we, as I have before observed, once fee the fovereign of Obcreonoo, while we were in the island. The Earees are lords of one or more of the diftricts into which each of the peninfulas is divided, of which there may be about one hundred, in the whole ifland; and they parcel out their territories to the Manahounies, who cultivate each his part which he holds under the baron. The lowest clafs, called Toutous, feem to be nearly under the fame circumstances as the villains in feu

dal governments: thefe do all the laborious work; they cultivate the land under the Manahounies, who are only nominal cultivators for the lord; they fetch wood and water, and, under the direction of the miftrefs of the family, drefs the victuals; they alfo catch the fish.

Each of the Earees keep a kind of court, and has a great number of attendants, chiefly the younger brothers of their own tribe; and among these fome hold particular offices, but of what nature exactly we could not tell. One was called the Eora no l'Earee, and another the Whanno no l'Earee, and these were frequently dispatched to us with meffages. Of all the courts of thefe Earees, that of Tootahah was the moft fplendid, as indeed might reasonably be expected, because he administered the government for Outou, his nephew, who was Earee rahie of Obereonoo, and lived upon his eftate. The child of the baron or Earee, as well as of the fovereign or Earee rahie, fucceeds to the title and honours of the father as foon as it is born: fo that a baron, who was yesterday called Earee, and was approached with the ceremony of lowering the garments, fo as to uncover the upper part of the body, is to-day, if his wife was last night delivered of a child, reduced to the rank of a private man, all marks of respect being transferred to the child, if it is fuffered to live, though the father fill continues poffeffor and adminiftrator of his eftate probably this cuftom has its fhare, among other inducements, in forming the focieties called Arreoy.

If a general attack happens to be made upon the island, every district C 4 under