12 



porter's journal. 



copper colour. But some are as fair as the generality of 

 working white people much exposed to the sun of a warm 

 climate. The old men (but particularly the chiefs) are 

 entirely black. This is owing entirely to the practice of 

 tattooing, with which they are entirely covered, and it re- 

 quires a close inspection to perceive that the blackness of 

 their skin is owing to this cause. When the eye is once 

 familiarized with men ornamented after this manner, we 

 perceive a richness in the skin of an old man highly tattooed 

 comparable to that observed in a highly wrought piece of 

 old mahogany. On a minute examination, may be traced 

 innumerable hnes, curved, straight, and irregular, drawn 

 with the utmost correctness, taste, and symmetry, and yet 

 apparently without order, or any determined plan. The 

 young men, the fairness of whose skin is contrasted by the 

 ornaments of tattooing, certainly have, at first sight, a more 

 handsome appearance than those entirely covered with it ; 

 and in a short time we are induced to think that tattooing 

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

 clothing is for an European. The neatness and beauty 

 with which this species of ornament is finished, served 

 greatly to surprise us. We could not help believing that 

 they had among them tattooers by profession, some of them, 

 no doubt, equal in celebrity to M'Alpin and other renown- 

 ed tailors of America ; for we afterwards discovered, that 

 the wealthy and high classes were more fully and hand- 

 somely tattooed than those of an inferior station, which is 

 a sufficient evidence that tattooing has its price. 



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

 were, as I before observed, handsome and well formed 5 

 their skins were remarkably soft and smooth, and their 

 complexions no darker than many brunettes in America, 

 celebrated for their beauty. Their modesty was more 

 evident than that of the women of any place we had 

 visited since leaving our own country ; and if they suf- 

 fered themselves (although with apparent timidity and re- 

 luctance) to be presented naked to strangers, may it not be 

 in compliance with a custom, which taught them to sacri- 

 fice to hospitality all that is most estimable. 



The canoes of these people are not so perfect in their 

 construction as I had expected to find them. Yet they have 

 muchlabour, and, no doubt, time, expended in their forma- 



