PORTER^ S JOURNAL. 



13 



tion, considering the tools with which they were for the 

 most part completed. Iron they know the use of ; but 

 from their desire to possess a few pieces of old iron hoop, 

 its scarcity was evident. It is therefore highly probable, 

 that they were formed with tools made of stones, or of such 

 as could be made with the scraps of iron which it is possi- 

 ble they may have received from transient visiters. For, 

 as it does not appear that they possess any articles of trade, 

 it is not likely that tools of more value have been furnished 

 them. These vessels 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 with strips of bamboo, sewed 

 to the edge of each plank, to keep in a stufting of oakum, 

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

 them from leaking sufficiently to give constant employ- 

 ment to one or two persons to bail the water out. The 

 keel consists of one piece, which runs 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 manner 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 bow, 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 

 frequently 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 run- 

 ner, 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. 

 At some of the coves I observed the frames of boats of a 



