INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERS. 241 



counter the swell of the open sea.* Their agricul- 

 ture is very rude, and they seem in no instance to 

 have attained to the cultivation of rice or any other 

 sort of grain. I am not aware of any genuine Papuan 

 people having invented or practised the art of mak- 

 ing any kind of cloth. Their favourite weapons are 

 the bow and arrow, but they seem never to have 

 acquired any thing like discipline or skill in war- 

 fare, although apparently more constantly engaged 

 in it than the Polynesians. The most striking 

 instance of skill and ability among the Papuan peo- 

 ple, with which I am acquainted, is that evinced in 

 the erection of the immense houses in New Guinea, 

 of one of which a description will be found in the 



* Mr. Blaxland, of Sydney, New South Wales, having often 

 cruized in command of a whaler among the islands of the western 

 part of the Pacific, had written some notes respecting them, 

 which he had the kindness to place at my disposal. He says, 

 cf that the canoes of the Papua, or woolly-haired race, are always 

 single, with outriggers ; those of the straight-haired Polynesians 

 generally double. The canoes of the Solomon Islands have ele- 

 vated prows and sterns, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, carrying 

 from forty to sixty men, but being of very frail construction, 

 and the planks very thin, they only ventured in calm weather so 

 much as ten miles from land. The paddles are five feet long, 

 very light, and the blade leaf-shaped, and two feet long.'* On the 

 north shore of New Guinea he has seen l< canoes, ornamented 

 by large heads at the bow and the stern. From these countries 

 the canoes of the woolly-haired races degenerate towards the 

 east, till at New Caledonia they are only fit for the quiet water 

 inside the reefs, and the people of Erroomanga and Tanna have 

 no canoes whatever." 



VOL. II. R 



