1770. March.

five or fix feet beyond the body, and was about four feet and an half high; the ornament at the ftern was fixed upon the end, as the ftern-poft 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 confifted of boards of carved work, of which the design was much better than the execution. All their canoes, except a few at Opoorage or Mercury Bay, which were of one piece, and hollowed by fire, are built after this plan, and few are less than twenty feet long: fome of the smaller fort have out-riggers, and fometimes two of them are joined together, but this is not common. The carving upon the stern and head ornaments of the inferior boats, which seem to be intended wholly for fishing, consists of the figure of a man, with a face as ugly as can be conceived, and a monstrous tongue thruft out of the mouth, with the white shells of fea-ears stuck in for the eyes. But the canoes of the fuperior kind, which feem to be their men of war, are magnificently adorned with open work, and covered with loofe fringes of black feathers, which had a most elegant appearance: the gunwale boards were alfo frequently carved in a grotefque tafte, and adorned with tufts of white feathers placed upon a black ground. Of visible objects that are wholly new, no verbal defcription can convey a juft idea, but in proportion as they resemble fome that are already known, to which the mind of the reader muft be referred; the carving of these people being of a fingular kind, and not in the likeness of any thing that is known on our side of the ocean, either" in the heaven above, or in the "earth beneath, or in the waters that are under the "earth."

The paddles are small, light, and neatly made; the blade is of an oval shape, or rather of a shape resembling a large leaf, pointed at the bottom, broadeft in the middle, and gradually lofing itfelf in the fhaft, the whole length being about fix feet, of which the shaft or loom, including the handle, is four, and the blade two. By the help of these oars they pufh on their boats with amazing velocity.

*See plate, Vol. II. page 164.

In

+

In failing they are not expert, having no art of going otherwise than before the wind: the fail is of netting or mat, which is set up between two poles that are fixed upright upon each gunwale, and serve both for mafts and yards: two ropes anfwered the purpose of sheets, and were consequently fastened above to the top of each pole. But clumfy and inconvenient as this apparatus is, they make good way before the wind, and are fteered by two men who fit in the stern, with each a paddle in his hand for that purpose.

1770.

March.

Having faid thus much of their workmanship, I Tools, fhall now give some account of their tools; they have adzes, axes, and chifels, which ferve them alfo as augors for boring of holes: as they have no metal, their adzes and axes are made of a hard black stone, or of a green talc, which is not only hard but tough; and their chifels of human bone, or fmall fragments of jafper, which they chip off from a block in fharp angular pieces like a gun-flint. Their axes they value above all that they poffefs, and never would part with one of them for any thing that we could give: I once offered one of the best axes I had in the ship, besides a number of other things, for one of them, but the owner would not fell it; from which I conclude that good ones are scarce among them. Their fmall tools of jasper, which are used in finishing their nicest work, they use till they are blunt, and then, as they have no means of sharpening them, throw them away. We had given the people at Tolaga a piece of glass, and in a fhort time they found means to drill a hole through it, in order to hang it round the neck as an ornament by a thread; and we imagine the tool must have been a piece of this jafper. How they bring their large tools first to an edge, and fharpen the weapon which they call Patoo-Patoo, we could not certainly learn; but probably it is by bruifing the fame fubftance to powder, and with this grinding two pieces against each other.

Their nets, particularly their feine, which is of an Nets, enormous fize, have been mentioned already one of these seems to be the joint work of a whole town, and I suppose it to be the joint property alfo: the other net, which is circular, and extended by two or three

hoops,

1770. March.

Tillage.

Weapons.

hoops, has been particularly defcribed, as well as the manner of baiting and ufing it. Their hooks are of bone or fhell, and in general are ill made. To receive the fish when it is caught, and to hold their other provisions, they have baskets of various kinds and dimenfions very neatly made of wicker work.

They excel in tillage, as might naturally be expected where the perfon that fows is to eat the produce, and where there is fo little befides that can be eaten : when we first came to TEGADOO, a district between Poverty Bay and Eaft Cape, their crops were juft covered, and had not yet begun to fprout; the mould was as smooth as in a garden, and every root had its fmall hillock, ranged in a regular quincunx by lines, which with the pegs were still remaining in the field. We had not an opportunity to fee any of the husbandmen work, but we faw what ferves them at once for fpade and plough: this inftrument is nothing more than a long narrow ftake sharpened to an edge at one end, with a fhort piece faftened tranfverfely at a little. distance above it, for the convenience of preffing it down with the foot. With this they turn up pieces of ground fix or feven acres in extent, though it is not more than three inches broad; but as the foil is light and fandy, it makes little refiftance.

Tillage, weaving, and other arts of peace, seem to be best known and most practifed in the northern part of this country; for there is little appearance of any of them in the fouth: but the arts of war flourish equally through the whole coaft.

Of weapons they have no great variety, but fuch as they have are well fitted for deftruction; they have fpears, darts, battle-axes, and the Patoo-Patoo. The fpear is fourteen or fifteen feet long, pointed at both ends, and fometimes headed with bone: these are grafped by the middle, fo that the part behind balancing that before, makes a push more difficult to be parried, than that of a weapon which is held by the end. The dart and other weapons have been fufficiently defcribed already; and it has alfo been remarked, that these people have neither fling nor bow. They throw the dart by hand, and fo they do ftones; but darts and stones are feldom used except in defending

their forts. Their battles, whether in boats or on fhore, are generally hand to hand, and the slaughter must consequently be great, as a fecond blow with any of their weapons is unneceffary, if the first takes place : their truft, however, seems to be principally placed in the Patoo-Patoo, which is fastened to their wrifts by a ftrong ftrap, left it fhould be wrenched from them, and which the principal people generally wear sticking in their girdles, confidering it is a military ornament, and part of their drefs, like the poniard of the Afiatic, and the fword of the European. They have no defenfive armour; but, befides their weapons, the Chiefs carried a staff of diftinction, in the fame manner as our officers do the fpontoon: this was generally the rib of a whale, as white as fnow, with many ornaments of carved work, dog's hair, and feathers; but fometimes it was a stick, about fix feet long, adorned in the fame manner, and inlaid with a fhell like mother-of-pearl. Those who bore this mark of distinction were generally. old, at least past the middle age, and were alfo more marked with the Amoco than the rest.

One or more perfons, thus diftinguished, always appeared in each canoe, when they came to attack us, according to the fize of it. When they came within about a cable's length of the fhip, they used to stop, and the Chiefs rifing from their feat, put on a dress which feemed appropriated to the occafion, generally of dog's fkin, and holding out their decorated staff, or a weapon, directed the rest of the people what they should do. When they were at too great a distance to reach us with a lance or a ftone, they prefumed that we had no weapon with which we could reach them; here then the defiance was given, and the words were almost universally the fame, Haromai, haromai, harre uta a Patoo-Patoo oge: "Come to us, come on shore, " and we will kill you with our Patoo-Patoos." While they were uttering these menaces they came gradually nearer and nearer, till they were close along-fide; talking at intervals in a peaceable ftrain, and answering any questions that we afked them; and at intervals renewing their defiance and threats, till being encouraged by our apparent timidity, they began their warfong and dance, as a prelude to an attack, which al

way's

1770.

March.

1770. March.

ways follows, and was fometimes continued till it became abfolutely neceffary to reprefs them by firing fome fmall fhot; and fometimes ended after throwing a few ftones on board, as if content with having offered us an infult which we did not dare to revenge.

The war-dance confifts of a great variety of violent motions, and hideous contortions of the limbs, during which the countenance alfo performs its part: the tongue is frequently thruft out to an incredible length, and the eye-lids fo forcibly drawn up, that the white appears both above and below, as well as on each fide of the lid, fo as to form a circle round it; nor is any thing neglected that can render the human shape frightful and deformed: at the fame time they brandish their fpears, fhake their darts, and cleave the air with their Patoo-Patoos. This horrid dance is always accompanied by a fong; it is wild indeed, but not disagreeable, and every strain ends in a loud and deep figh, which they utter in concert. In the motions of the dance, however horrid, there is a ftrength, firmness, and agility, which we could not but behold with admiration; and in their fong they keep time with fuch exactnefs, that I have often heard above an hundred paddles ftruck against the fides of their boats at once, fo as to produce but a fingle found, at the divifion of their music.

A fong not altogether unlike this, they fometimes fing without the dance, and as a peaceable amusement: they have alfo other fongs which are fung by the women, whose voices are remarkably mellow and foft, and have a pleafing and tender effect; the time is flow, and the cadence mournful; but it is conducted with more taste than could be expected among the poor ignorant favages of this half defolate country; efpecially as it appeared to us, who were none of us much acquainted with mufic as a science, to be fung in parts; it was at least fung by many voices at the fame time.

They have fonorous inftruments, but they can fcarcely be called inftruments of mufic; one is the fhell, called the Triton's trumpet, with which they make a noise not unlike that which our boys fometimes make with a cow's horn: the other is a fmall wooden pipe, refembling