AVOYAGETO 



'777- land, running quite round it, edged with a white fand 

 beach. The hills arc covered with grafs, or fomc other 

 herbage, except a few fleep, rocky clifFs at one part, with 

 patches of trees interfperfed to their fummits. But the 

 plantations are more numerous, in fome of the vallies j and 

 the flat border is quite covered with high, flrong trees, 

 whole different kinds we could not difcern, except fome 

 cocoa-palms, and a few of the etoa. According to the in- 

 formation of the men in the canoes, their ifland is flocked 

 with hogs and fowls ; and produces the feveral fruits and 

 roots that arc found at the other iflands in this part of the 

 Pacific Ocean. 



We had an opportunity, from the converfation we had 

 with thofe who came oil to us, of fatisfying ourfclves, that 

 tlie inhabitants of Toobouai fpeak the Otaheite language; 

 a circumftancc that indubitably proves them to be of the 

 lame nation. Thofe of them whom we faw in the canoes, 

 were a Aout copper-coloured people, with flxaight black 

 hair, which fomc of them wore tied in a bunch on the 

 crown of tlie head, and others, flowing about the flioulders. 

 Their faces were fomewhat round and full, but the features, 

 upon the whole, rather flat; and their countenances fecmed 

 to exprcfs fomc dcguee of natural ferocity. They had no 

 covering but a piece of narrow fluff wrapped about the 

 waill, and made topafs between the thighs, to cover the 

 adjoining pixrts ; but fome of thofe wliom we faw upon the 

 beach, where about a hundred pcrfons had aflembled, were 

 entirely clothed with a kind of white garment. We could 

 obfcrvc, that fome of our viilters, in the canoes, wore pearl 

 fhells, hung about the neck, as an ornament. One of them 

 kept blowing a large conch- (hell, to which a reed, near two 

 feet long, was fixed j at firft, with a continued tone of the 



fame 



