1770. March. of which to a greater or lefs diftance from the end, the degree of obliquity is increased or diminished at pleasure. To the northward, as I have obferved, there are plantations of yams, fweet potatoes, and coccos, but we faw no fuch to the fouthward; the inhabitants therefore of that part of the country muft fubfift wholly upon fern root and fifh, except the fcanty and accidental refource which they may find in fea fowl and dogs; and that fern and fifh are not to be procured at all seasons of the year, even at the fea fide, and upon the neighbouring hills, is manifeft from the ftores of both that we faw laid up dry, and the reluctance which fome of them expreffed at felling any part of them to us when we offered to purchase them, at least the fish, for fea flores: and this particular feems to confirm my opinion that this country scarcely fuftains the prefent number of its inhabitants, who are urged to perpetual hoftilities by hunger, which naturally prompted them to eat the dead bodies of those who were flain in the contest. Water is their univerfal and only liquor, as far as we could discover, and if they have really no means of intoxication, they are, in this particular, happy beyond any other people that we have yet seen or heard of. As there is perhaps no source of disease either critical or chronic, but intemperance and inactivity, it cannot be thought ftrange that these people enjoy perfect and uninterrupted health: in all our vifits to their towns, where young and old, men and women, crowded about us, prompted by the fame curiofity that carried us to look at them, we never faw a fingle person who appeared to have any bodily complaint, nor among the numbers that we have seen naked, did we once perceive the slightest eruption upon the skin, `or any marks that an eruption had left behind: at first, indeed, 3 obferving obferving that fome of them when they came off to us were 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 sprey of the fea in their paffage, 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 fhot with a mufket 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 en-quired, with a very interested curiofity, 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 loss of their hair and teeth, appeared to be very ancient, yet none of them were decrepit, and though, not equal to the young in muscular strength, were not a whit behind them in cheerfulness and vivacity.. 1770. March. СНА Р. 1770. March. Canoes, CHAP. X. Of the Canoes and Navigation of the Inhabitants of New · Zealand; their Tillage, Weapons, and Mufic: Government, Religion, and Language: With fome Reafons against the Existence of a Southern Continent. T HE ingenuity of these people appears in nothing more than in their canoes: they are long and narrow, and in shape very much resemble a New England whale boat: the larger fort feem to be built chiefly for war, and will carry from forty to eighty, or an hundred armed men. We measured one which lay afhore at Tolaga: fhe was fixtyeight feet and an half long, five feet broad, and three feet and an half deep; the bottom was sharp, with ftrait fides like a wedge, and confifted of three lengths, hollowed out to about two inches, or an inch and an half thick, and well faftened 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 great dexterity and ftrength. A confiderable number of thwarts were laid from gunwale to gunwale, to which they were fecurely lashed 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 ftern was fixed upon that end, as the fternpoft 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 |