1769* ROUND THE WORLD. * f09 



CHAP. XVIIL 



OF THE MANUFACTURES, BOATS, AND NAVIGATION OF 



OTAHEITE. 



If necessity is the mother of invention, it cannot 

 be supposed to have been much exerted where the li- 

 berality of Nature has rendered the diligence of Art 

 almost superfluous ; yet there are many instances both 

 of ingenuity and labour among these people, which, 

 considering the want of metal for tools, do honour 

 to both. 



Their principal manufacture is their cloth, in the 

 making and dying of which I think there are some 

 particulars which may instruct even the artificers of 

 Great Britain, and for that reason my description will 

 be more minute. 



Their cloth is of three kinds ; and it is made of 

 the bark of three different trees, the Chinese paper 

 mulberry, the bread-fruit tree, and the tree which re- 

 sembles the wild fig-tree of the West Indies. 



The finest and whitest is made of the paper mul- 

 berry, Aouta ; this is worn chiefly by the principal 

 people, and when it is dyed red takes a better colour. 

 A second sort, inferior in whiteness and softness, is 

 made of the bread-fruit tree, Ooi^oo, and worn chiefly 

 by the inferior people ; and a third of the tree that 

 resembles the fig, which is coarse and harsh, and of 

 the colour of the darkest brown paper ; this, though 

 it is less pleasing both to the eye and the touch, is the 

 most valuable, because it resists water, which the other 

 two sorts will not. Of this, which is the most rare 

 as well as the most useful, the greater part is perfumed, 

 and worn by the Chiefs as a morning dress. 



All these trees are propagated with great care, par- 

 ticularly the mulberry, which covers the largest part 



VOL. I. p 



