SWIFTNESS OF THEIR CANOES. 283 



and a crowd of men, women, and children about it, 

 wading out over the mud-flats under the bank, 

 waving to us, and inviting us to come ashore. On a 

 shoal of mud or sand beyond the point were twenty 

 or thirty men wading about, apparently catching 

 either fish or molluscous animals, and beyond them, 

 out at sea, we now saw three large canoes, full of 

 men, who, as soon as they perceived us, came 

 towards us at full speed. The cutter returned to 

 us under sail, before a fresh breeze, and with all 

 her oars out ; notwithstanding which, these canoes, 

 by the help of their paddles alone, stemmed the 

 force of the adverse tide, and gained so rapidly on 

 our boat that they would have cut her off had she 

 had another mile or two to go. The canoes were 

 simply large hollow trees, without any outriggers or 

 other external support ; they were round-bottomed, 

 the ends rising gently from the water, but not 

 closed, and at the bow of each sat a man, with his 

 back to the sea, apparently for the purpose of 

 keeping the water out. Each of these canoes had 

 full forty men in it, as we counted in one fifteen 

 paddling on each side, and there were others 

 standing idle. The paddlers stood pretty close 

 together, at regular intervals, and kept excellent 

 time in their stroke, having a long paddle with a 

 diamond-shaped blade. There was no one steering, 

 but as the paddlers stand and look forward, they 

 can of course steer themselves. Along the outside 

 of the canoes we could see a carved line running in 

 curves, apparently as an ornament. They first 



