166 FROM CONCEPTION RAY 



savage than I have met with in the others. It is 

 very surprising and remarkable, that the inhabit- 

 ants of the Penrhyns do not tattoo themselves, in 

 which they differ entirely from the customs of the 

 other South Sea islanders j and particularly as they 

 lie so near to the Friendly islands, that they have 

 either their origin from them, or have been driven 

 hither from Washington's islands. But, not to be 

 quite unornamented, most of them have inflicted 

 bloody stripes on their breast and back, which, 

 with their long hair hanging in disorder over them, 

 gives them a very disagreeable appearance. They 

 are all naked ; a few excepted, who wear a girdle 

 of badly-worked stuff. They wear the nails very 

 long ; and this is probably a principal ornament of 

 the chief people, as I observed several, who let 

 them grow to the length of three inches. That the 

 Penrhyns do not possess the tree, of which most 

 of the South Sea islanders make the well-known 

 cloth, proves that they have no intercourse with 

 the Friendly islands. However, they understood 

 some words of their language, borrowed from Cook*s 

 Voyages, which we addressed to them. Their boats, 

 which are badly constructed, resemble those of 

 the Marquesas, being furnished with an outrigger 

 on each side, and carry twelve men conveniently ; 

 the sails, of a coarsely woven mat, are adapted only 

 to sail with the wind. I cannot tell whether the 

 island produces any thing besides cocoa-nuts, but 

 these must be in great abundance to judge by the 



