28 Diredo)-' s Annual Report. 



the Hawaiian Islands, and Tapa or Siapo by other Polynesians. 

 This cloth was not tough or durable, and could stand little wear 

 even when dr}', while were it wet the fibre would soon become dis- 

 joined and the kapa be dispersed. 



Who taught these people the use of the sail and whence they 

 procured their patterns is as much conjedture as is the origin of the 

 Polynesian race at the present day, but it might be interesting here 

 since it is generally conceded by competent authorities that the 

 Polynesians emigrated from some part of Asia, to give short de- 

 scriptions of the sails of the east coast of this continent, with those 

 of the Islands, made principall}' long before the time when the 

 influence of European civilization began to dominate the races 

 which are considered inferior. The authorities here quoted are the 

 voyages of the earliest Kuropean navigators, but great difficulty 

 has been experienced in gleaning information concerning the sails 

 from even these ; for, while the canoes in nearly every instance 

 took the fancy of the voyagers by their novelty, the sails were 

 passed by with but a word. 



The Chinese sail has retained its shape since the first visit of 

 the Western civilizer, until very modern times, that .seen today 

 being practically the same which Anson saw on his visit : it was a 

 large trapezoidal sail, the breadth being less than the length, made 

 of mats woven from rattan {Calaniiis rotang) into long strips the 

 length of the sail — .stretched across the sail parallel to the top yard 

 and deck were bambu poles about three feet apart ; the reason for 

 this being to .strengthen the matting, and also no doubt to prevent 

 the sail bagging and carrying dead wind. The sail of the Japan- 

 ese was of a shape known as a square sail, attached to a large yard 

 at the top of a tall mast, its length being perhaps half as long again 

 as its breadth. This sail was composed of long narrow strips of 

 cloth running the length of the sail and laced together. It was 

 admirably suited for moving before the wind, but for tacking was 

 useless. In Formosa and the L^iu Kiu Islands the sails are after 

 the fashion of the Chinese, but the Liu Kiu people have also 

 been known to u.se sails of cloth. In the Philippine Islands, when 

 at Manila, La Perouse portrayed "A Parao or Passage Boat of 

 Manila" having two sails almost identical with those of the Chi- 

 nese, and being undoubtedly of Chinese origin. Throughout the 

 Malayan Archipelago mat sails were used, there being one general 



