42 TEE CRUISE OF THE ' GUBAQOA: 



manner of annoyance to the sailors busy in' swabbing the 

 decks. 



About half -past threeSir William placed at my dis- 

 posal his gig, as I wished to make an excursion on land. 

 I had considerable difficulty in passing the coral reef by a 

 very narrow and shallow channel, in which I observed 

 some admirable specimens of madrepores. I landed at a 

 village agreeably situated in tlie midst of cocoanut trees, 

 the inhabitants of which came out to meet me, and appeared 

 very friendly and good-natured. I sjooke to them in 

 Hawaiian, which they seemed to understand without much 

 difficulty. The Samoan houses are so prettily and inge- 

 niously constructed that I will insert here a minute account, 

 given by Mr. Hood,^ of one of them, in which he passed a 

 day and a night. ' Upon a raised platform of rough stones, 

 covered with gravel, varying in diameter according to the 

 size of the building, beyond which it extends from ten to 

 twenty feet, stands what at a distance looks like a huge 

 mushroom, the usual size being about a hundred feet in 

 circumference. It is, in fact, a great dome-shaped roof, 

 raised from the ground upon posts about four feet high, and 

 the same distance apart, between which a sort of blind 

 made of plaited cocoanut leaves is let fall at night or in 

 stormy weather. This roof is so constructed that it can be 

 removed in three or four parts, and is sometimes taken by 

 sea on a raft of canoes. It is supported in the centre by 

 three posts, about twenty-five feet high. Eounded beams, 

 I Hood, ' Cruise of tlie Fawn,' p. 32. 



