514 Transactions. —Miscellaneous. 



left little to be seen. I expressed a wish to see the place, and 

 he at once guided me there. 



The signs of habitation consisted of charred posts, the up- 

 rights or supports of several whares ; in one or two places the 

 battens and thatch of a roof lay on the ground, having partly 

 escaped the burning. Several pieces of a broad fiat board, 

 some 2^in. thick, were near by, and may have been part of a 

 canoe. It w^as pierced by holes in several places, some square 

 in shape, others circular, and one large square hole about Sin. 

 in diameter, which might have been a place to step a mast. Of 

 the remains of tools was one small iron adze, which had been so 

 much sharpened that all the steeling was ground away. From 

 the eye of this adze it was evident that its smallness was not 

 owing altogether to frequent sharpenings, but that it originally 

 was, of a small make. For chisels w-ere half a dozen large 

 spike-nails, bevelled on one edge only ; and some very curious 

 remains of knives were lying about. My first opinion was 

 that they had been made from old hoop-iron, partly from their 

 decayed appearance, and also from the peculiar way in which 

 they had been fitted into handles, of which latter remained 

 no vestige. The blades were either filed away or otherwise 

 sharpened to a flat four-sided apex at the proximate end, 

 which had then been driven into a hole in the handle ; the 

 outer end was rounded like a dinner-knife. They were large 

 and clumsy, and gave the idea of a primitive make. In refer- 

 ence to these knives, I seem to have somewhere read an 

 account of travels among the islands, where this entry is 

 made : " The cooper was set to work to make knives from 

 hoop-iron, to barter with the natives." Perhaps these were of 

 such make, and given to those Maoris by the people of some 

 "whaler" many years ago. Of the use of spike-nails as 

 chisels we have Captain Cook's evidence that the Maori had 

 found them of more utility than their former implements of 

 stone or bone. In Cook's First Voyage, he says of the Maoris 

 near Cape Campbell, " They came on board with very little in- 

 vitation, and their behaviour was courteous and friendly. 

 We soon perceived that our guests had heard of us, for as soon 

 as they came on board they asked for loliou [ivliao^ , the name 

 by which nails were known among the people with whom 

 w^e had trafficked ; but though they had heard of nails it was 

 plain they had seen none, for when nails were given them 

 they asked Tupia" what they were. The term wliou, indeed, 

 conveyed to them the idea not of their quality but only of 

 their use, for it is the same by which they distinguish a tool, 

 commonly made of bone, which they use both as an auger and 



* A native of Tahiti, who acted as interpreter between Cook and the 

 Maoris, the Tahitian and ilaori languages being cognate. 



