

52 cook's first voyage march, 



these seems to be the joint work of a whole town, 

 and I suppose it to be the joint property also : the 

 other net, which is circular, and extended by two or 

 three hoops, has been particularly described, as well 

 as the manner of baiting and using it. Their hooks 

 are of bone or shell, 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 dimensions, very neatly made of wicker- 

 work. 



They excel in tillage, as might naturally be expect- 

 ed where the person that sows is to eat the produce, 

 and where there is so little besides that can be eaten : 

 when we first came to Tegadoo, a district between 

 Poverty Bay and East Cape, their crops were just 

 covered, and had not yet begun to sprout ; the mould 

 was as smooth as in a garden, and every root had its 

 small hillock, ranged in a regular quincunx by lines, 

 which with the pegs were still remaining in the field. 

 We had not an opportunity to see any of these hus- 

 bandmen work, but we saw what serves them at 

 once for spade and plough : this instrument is no- 

 thing more than a long narrow stake sharpened to an 

 edge at one end, with a short piece fastened trans- 

 versely at a little distance above it, for the conveni- 

 ence of pressing it down with the foot. With this 

 they turn up pieces of ground six or seven acres in 

 extent, though it is not more than three inches 

 broad ; but as the soil is light and sandy, it makes 

 little resistance. 



Tillage, weaving, and the other arts of peace, seem 

 to be best known and most practised in the northern 

 part of this country ; for there is little appearance of 

 any of them in the south : but the arts of war flou- 

 rish equally through the whole coast. 



Of weapons they have no great variety, but such as 

 they have are well fitted for destruction ; they have 

 spears, darts, battle-axes, and the Patoo-Patoo. The 

 spear is fourteen or fifteen feet long, pointed at both 



