177& ROUND THE WORLD. QC)g 



with hot stones in an oven or hole in the ground. 

 The straw or tops of sugar-cane, plantain heads, &c. 

 serve them for fuel to heat the stones. Plantains, 

 which require but little dressing, they roast under 

 fires of straw, dried grass, &c, and whole races of them 

 are ripened or roasted in this manner. We frequently 

 saw ten or a dozen, or more, such fires in one place, 

 and most commonly in the mornings and evenings. 



Not more than three or four canoes were seen on 

 the whole island ; and these very mean, and built of 

 of many pieces sewed together with small line. They 

 are about eighteen or twenty feet long, head and 

 stern carved or raised a little, are very narrow, 

 and fitted with out-riggers. They do not seem 

 capable of carrying above four persons, and are by 

 no means fit for any distant navigation. As small 

 and as mean as these canoes were, it was a matter of 

 wonder to us, where they got the wood to build them 

 with; for in one of them was a board six or eight 

 feet long, fourteen inches broad at one end, and 

 eight at the other ; whereas we did not see a stick on 

 the island which would have made a board half this 

 size ; nor, indeed, was there another piece in the 

 whole canoe half so big. 



There are two ways by which it is possible they 

 may have got this large wood \ it might have been 

 left here by the Spaniards ; or it might have been 

 driven on the shore of the island from some distant 

 land. It is even possible that there may be some 

 land in the neighbourhood, from whence they might 

 have got it. We, however, saw no signs of any ; nor 

 could we get the least information on this head from 

 the natives, although we tried every method we could 

 think of to obtain it. We were almost as unfortu- 

 nate in our inquiries for the proper or native name of 

 the island. For, on comparing notes, I found we 

 had got three different names for it, viz. Tamareki, 

 Whyhu, and Teapy. Without pretending to say 

 which, or whether any of them, is right, I shall only 



u 3 



