in the Pacific Ocean, 



79 



with it ; and in a short time we are induced to think that tat- 

 tooing is as necessary an ornament for a native of those islands as 

 clothing is for an European. 



The young girls, which we had an opportunity of seeing, 

 were handsome and well formed ; their skins were remarkably 

 soft and smooth, and their complexions no darker than many 

 brunettes in America, celebrated for their beauty. Their mo- 

 desty was more evident than that of the women of any place we 

 had visited since leaving our own country ; and if they suffered 

 themselves (although with apparent timidity and reluctance) to 

 be presented naked to strangers, may it not be in compliance 

 with a custom, which taught them to sacrifice to hospitality all 

 that is most estimable. 



The canoes are generally about forty feet in length, thirteen 

 inches wide, and eighteen inches deep. They are formed of 

 many pieces of the bread-fruit tree, cut into the form of planks, 

 and sewed together with the fibres of the outside shell of the 

 cocoa-nut. The seams are covered inside and out v^^ith strips of 

 bamboo, sew^ed to the edge of each plank, to keep in a stuffing of 

 oakum, made of the cocoa-nut shell also, which does not prevent 

 them from leaking sufficiently to give constant employment to one 

 or two persons to bail the v/ater out. The keel consists of one 

 piece, which runs through the whole length, is hollowed out in 

 the form of a canoe, and seems to stiffen the whole vessel, and 

 keep it straight. Three pieces of thin plank, placed in the man- 

 ner of partitions, divide the interior into four parts, and perform 

 the office of timbers to keep the vessel from separating or closing 

 together. Out-riggers from the how, middle and stern, with a 

 long piece of light wood secured to the extremity of each, keep 

 them from upsetting, which, from their narrowness, would fre- 

 quently happen were it not for this contrivance. The ornamental 

 part consists of a flat prow, which projects about two feet, and 

 is rudely carved on the upper surface, to represent the head of 

 some animal. Sometimes there is attached to it a small board, 

 supported by a rudely carved figure of a man. From the stern 

 is a slender projection of , six or eight feet in length, and in the 

 form of a sleigh runner, or the forepart of a Holland skate. 

 Their paddles are very neatly made, of a hard black wood highly 

 polished. Their handles are slender, the blades of an oval form, 

 broadest toward the lower part, and terminating in a point like 

 a hawk's bill. They were all without sails, and did not appear 

 to be managed with much skill or dexterity. 



