160 GENERAL ACCOUNT OF SOUTH SEA ISLANDS CH. VH 



visions and place to store them in, as well as water, of 

 which they carry a tolerable stock in bamboos. 



All the boats are disproportionately narrow in respect 

 to their length, which causes them to be very easily overset, 

 so that not even the Indians dare venture in them till they 

 are fitted with a contrivance to prevent this inconvenience, 

 which is done, either by fastening two together side by 

 side, as has been before described, in which case one supports 

 the other and they become as steady a vehicle as can be 

 imagined ; or, if one of them is going out alone, by fasten- 

 ing a log of wood to two poles laid across the boat : this 

 serves to balance it tolerably, though not so securely, but that 

 I have seen the Indians overturn them very often. This is 

 the same principle as that adopted in the flying proa of the 

 Ladrone Islands described in Lord Anson's voyage, where it 

 is called an outrigger ; indeed, the vessels themselves as 

 much resemble the flying proa as to make appear at least 

 possible that either the latter is a very artful improvement 

 of these, or these a very awkward imitation of the proa. 



These boats are propelled with large paddles, which have 

 a long handle and a flat blade resembling, more than any- 

 thing I can recollect, a baker's peel ; of these every person 

 in the boat generally has one, except those who sit under 

 the houses ; and with these they push themselves on fairly 

 fast through the water. The boats are so leaky, however, 

 that one person at least is employed almost constantly in 

 throwing out the water. The only thing in which they 

 excel is landing in a surf, for by reason of their great length 

 and high sterns they land dry when our boats could scarcely 

 land at all, and in the same manner they put off from the 

 shore, as I have often experienced. 



When sailing, they have either one or two masts fitted 

 to a frame which is above the canoe : they are made 

 of a single stick ; in one that I measured of 32 feet 

 in length, the mast was 25 feet high, which seems to be 

 about the common proportion. To this is fastened a sail 

 about one-third longer, but narrow and of a triangular shape, 

 pointed at the top, and the outside curved ; it is bordered 



