320 ' PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1778. 



them so, tliat they all leaped into the sea, but soon recovered themselves 

 and paddled off. 



They are a tall, well-made people; the men in general about 5 feet 8 or 10 

 inches high ; the women shorter and more clumsily made. They are of a red 

 colour, and have straight, black hair, which the men cut short, but the women 

 let grow long, and roll up in a circle on the top of their heads very neatly. The 

 men go entirely naked, and the women wear nothing more than a very narrow 

 slip of plaintain le;if. The men always go armed with 6 or 8 lances, made of 

 the wood of the cabbage-tree, which is extremely hard; they are about 6 feet 

 long, and topped with the large bones of fish sharpened and barbed, or with a 

 piece of bamboo hardened in the fire, very sharp pointed, and its concave part 

 armed with the jaw bones and teeth of fish, so that it would be almost impossible 

 to extract them from a wound. They have no iron or other metal that he could 

 see, yet they build very neat canoes; they are formed of 2 thin boards sewed 

 together, and the seam filled with a resinous substance. They are about 10 feet 

 long, and about a foot broad, and have an outrigger on each side, to prevent 

 their over-setting. They split trees into boards with stone wedges. Their 

 houses are circular, supported on 10 or 12 iron-wood sticks about 6 feet long; 

 they are neatly floored with plank, and the roof rises immediately from the floor 

 in a conical form, so as to resemble a straw bee-hive; their diameter is not 

 above 8 feet. 



These people have no rice, fowls, or cattle, of any kind: they seem to live on 

 cocoa-nuts, sweet potatoes, and sugar-canes. They catch fish, and dry them 

 in the smoke; these fish they either strike with their lances, or catch in a 

 drawing net, which they make very neatly. They do not chew betel, a custom 

 which prevails universally among the eastern nations. 



I went on shore, says Mr. M., after the vessel anchored in the bay, hoping 

 to be able to see something of the country, and to meet with some of the chiefs. 

 I saw a few houses near the beach, and went towards them; but the natives 

 flocked down to the beach, to the number of 6o or 70 men, well armed with 

 their lances, &c. and put themselves in our way; yet, when we approached them, 

 they retreated slowly, making some few threatening gestures. I then ordered 

 my companions to halt and to be well on their guard, and went alone towards 

 them: they permitted me to come among them, and I gave them some knives, 

 pieces of cloth, and looking-glasses, with all which they seemed well pleased 

 and allowed me to take from them their lances, &c. and give them to my servant, 

 whom I called to take then). Finding I hem to behave civilly. I made signs that 

 I wanted to goto their houses and eat with them; they immediately sent people 

 who brought me cocoa-nuts, but did not seem to a[)prove of my going to their 

 houses: however I determined to venture thither, and seeing a ])ath leading 



