THIRD VOYAGE 319 



board, and without endangering their little ones, swim to 

 the shore through a sea that looked dreadful. 



" They seem to be blest with a frank, cheerful disposition ; 

 they live very sociably in their intercourse with one another, 

 and, except the propensity to thieving, which seems innate 

 in most of the people we have visited in this ocean, they 

 were exceedingly friendly to us. It was a pleasure to 

 observe with how much affection the women manage their 

 infants, and how readily the men lent their assistance to 

 such a tender office, thus sufficiently distinguishing them- 

 selves from those savages who esteem a wife and child as 

 things rather necessary than desirable, or worthy of their 

 notice. 



" Though they seem to have adopted the mode of living in 

 villages, there is no appearance of defence or fortification 

 near any of them ; and the houses are scattered about 

 without any order. Some are large and commodious, from 

 forty to fifty feet long, and twenty or thirty broad, while 

 others of them are mere hovels. They are well thatched 

 with long grass, which is laid on slender poles, disposed 

 with some regularity. The entrance is made indifferently 

 in the end or side, and is an oblong hole, so low, that 

 one must rather creep than walk in. No light enters the 

 house but by this opening ; and though such close habita- 

 tions may afford a comfortable retreat in bad weather, they 

 seem but ill adapted to the warmth of the climate. Of 

 animal food they can be in no want, as they have abundance 

 of hogs, which run without restraint about the houses ; and 

 if they eat dogs, which is not improbable, their stock of these 

 seemed to be very considerable. The great number of 

 fishing-hooks found amongst them, shewed that they de- 

 rived no inconsiderable supply of animal food from the sea. 



" They bake their vegetable food with heated stones, in 

 the same manner as the inhabitants of the southern islands. 

 The only artificial dish we met with was a taro pudding, 

 which, though a disagreeable mess, from its sourness, was 

 greedily devoured by the natives. 



" In everything manufactured by these people, there 

 appears to be an uncommon degree of neatness and in- 

 genuity. Their cloth, which is the principal manufacture, 

 is made from the Moms papyrifera ; and, doubtless, in the 

 same manner as at Otaheite and Tongataboo ; in colouring 

 or staining it, the people of Atooi display a superiority of 

 taste, by the endless variation of figures which they execute. 



" They fabricate a great many white mats, which are 

 strong, with many red stripes, rhombuses, and other figures 

 interwoven on one side, and often pretty large. 



" They stain their gourd-shells prettily with undulated 



