3© Director's Annual Report. 



distiiicftion was more marked in the rigging and build of the canoe 

 than in the sail. These vessels sailed close to the wind, and were 

 shaped bow and stern alike. When tacking the helm was put up 

 instead of down, and the sail being shortened by rolling up partly 

 the heel was lifted from the notch it had been set in and carried to 

 the other end where it was again fixed — the sail being kept to lee- 

 ward of the mast. For the purpose of shortening sail two ropes 

 were passed through the masthead and fastened to the boom, one 

 on each side of the sail. It might be well to mention that the out- 

 rigger was always kept to windward of the hull when sailing, for 

 if to leeward the weight of the wind might easily force it under 

 water and a capsize would promptly ensue. The mast in some 

 places, the Caroline Islands notably, was inclined forward with the 

 sail, and with each tack the stays were loosed and the mast moved, 

 the masthead always leaning in the direction of the boat's course. 



The Gilbert Islanders, besides the sail here described, which 

 was used for the larger craft, possessed a small sail bent to a mast 

 and a boom, the boom being fastened to hang at an angle of 50° to 

 the mast. This sail was used on a small canoe for a single indi- 

 vidual and was a simple sail for one man to work. 



The Tongans had been noted sailors for many years, but they 

 admitted having acquired their proficiency through the Fijians, 

 whose methods and pattern they had adopted, and were considered 

 by some to have surpassed their preceptors. The Fijians early 

 made trading voyages to Tonga and Samoa, and while the Samoans 

 were reputed to have built wonderful vessels in ancient times and 

 to have led expeditions to far distant lands, our earl}- explorers 

 seemed to have little opinion of the Samoan vessels. Cook named 

 Samoa the Navigator's Islands, not from what he saw, but from 

 what the natives told him. Two kinds of sails have been found at 

 Samoa ; one was large and shaped like that of the Fijians, through 

 whom no doubt the pattern originated, and the other was like that 

 used on the Gilbert Island small canoe, and might properly be 

 considered as the type of the older Samoan sail. There are old 

 legends inferring that the Maoris of New Zealand set out from 

 Samoa, and it .should be here remarked that the sails described in 

 "Cook's Third Voyage" and by d'Urville in the Astrolabe, and fig- 

 ured in the voyage of the Coqnille, are of the same shape as the 

 Samoan lastly described. 



