THE MARIANA ISLANDS. 81 



east of tiie Philippines, as far as the one hundred 

 and eightieth degree of longitude. This mild and 

 amiable people are not low in the scale of civiliz- 

 ation, and the inhabitants of the Marianas were 

 not inferior to their brethren. 



They equalled, at least, in navigation, the most 

 skilful of the Carolinians.* The still existing works 

 of their art of building in Tinian and Saypan, prove 

 that they were in this respect superior to others, 

 and we have discovered something among their 

 antiquities, which seems to indicate the immense 

 advance they had made in civilization before all 

 the other islanders of the Great Ocean. We speak 

 of the invention of money. We have seen our- 

 selves the objects we describe ; and explain them 

 on the authority of our friend Don Luis de Torres, 

 the friend of the Indians, and who is perfectly 

 acquainted with their manners. 



On a coarse cord of cocoa-bast are stringed 

 pieces of tortoise-shell, of the form of a button, 



* We must here mention an error in Dampicr's account of 

 the Proas of the Marianas, The boats of tlie Carolinians sail 

 in reahty, only as has been described in Anson's Voyage, and 

 as is already mentioned by Pigafetta, with the out-rigger on 

 the lee-side, and the flat side of the boat under the lee. It 

 was likewise after Anson, that these boats were imitated in 

 England ; the rate of twenty-four knots, which Dampier ascribes 

 to them, must be exaggerated, though they are light, quick, 

 and particularly more adapted than ours to sailing close to the 

 wind. We must further observe, which is understood of itself, 

 that the rudder is always under the wind, which is not always 

 observed with respect to the boats of Radack in the drawings 

 accompanying this work. 



VOL. HI. G 



