LETTER OF THE ADMIRAL'S SECRETARY. 223 
meal or finishing without asking a blessing 
or returning thanks. Boys and girls can 
swim almost as soon as they can walk ; con- 
sequently they can swim through the largest 
surf, and play about amongst the broken 
water on the rocks that we look at with terror. 
One of their greatest amusements is to have 
a slide, as they term it ; that is, to take 
a piece of wood about three feet long, shaped 
like a canoe, with a small keel (called a 
surf-board) ; they then, holding this before 
them, dive under the first heavy sea, and 
come up the other side ; they then swim 
out a little way until they see a rapid heavy 
sea come rolling in, the higher the better ; 
they rest their breast upon the canoe or surf- 
board, and are earned along on the very apex 
of the surf at a prodigious rate right upon the 
rocks, where you think nothing can save them 
from being dashed to pieces, the surf seems 
so powerful ; but in a moment they are on 
their legs, and prepared for another slide. 
Their method of fishing is equally dangerous; 
the women walk upon the rocks until they 
see a squid; then watching the retreating 
sea, they run in and try to pick the squid up 
