N A V 
the navigation-laws would be more completely anfwered, 
while our merchants would have lefs reafon to complain. 
If this alteration were made, the lofs of the merchants 
would be entirely for the benefit of the nation ; now it 
is only partly for the benefit of the nation, while, by 
benefiting at the lame time the Ihip-builders, that benefit 
13 effentiaily lelfened. 
Such is a brief hiftory, and general view, of thofe a 6 ls 
which have been palled for encouraging and increafing 
fhipping and navigation. But it may be proper to men¬ 
tion, that they are commonly very much relaxed, and in 
fome particular cafes entirely done away, in time of war; 
and only rigidly and uniformly enforced in time of 
peace. 
NAV'IGATOR, f. Sailor; feaman; traveller by water. 
—This terrellrial globe, which before was only a globe in 
fpeculation, has lince been furrounded by the boldnefs 
of many navigators. Temple. 
Navigators is an appellation ufed for the labourers 
who work at canal-digging. 
NAVIGATORS' I'SLANDS, a duller of illands in 
the South Pacific Ocean ; they are ten in number, viz. 
Opoun, Leone, Fanfoue, Maouna, Oyolava, Calinaffe, Pola, 
Shika, Oflamo, and Ouera. The feven firlt were feen by 
La Peroufe, but of the fituation of the other three he 
could obtain no falisfaftory account; and he feems to 
think, that Cocoa and Traitor’s illands might be two of 
them, though fmall; and the illand of Handfome People 
the other. The name of Navigators' Illands was given 
them by Bougainville. La Peroufe is decidedly of opiaion, 
that they are not the fame with thofe difcovered by Rogge- 
wein, and by him called Beaumont’s Illands. 
“ Thefe illands,” fays La Peroufe, “ form one of the 
fineft archipelagoes in the South Sea; and are as intereft- 
ing, in point of arts, productions, and population, as the 
Society and Friendly Illands, of which the Englifti navi¬ 
gators have given a defcription highly fatisfadtory. As 
to the moral qualities of the natives, although our inter- 
courfe was but of a moment’s duration, we had but too 
much reafon to be acquainted with their difpofition ; and 
we have no hefitation in alferting, that it would be vain 
to endeavour to excite the fentiment of gratitude in their 
ferocious minds, which are only to be refrained by fear. 
They are the tailed and bell made people we have yet met 
with. Their ufual height is five feet nine, ten, or eleven, 
inches; but their llature is lefs allonilhing than the co- 
loffal proportions of the different parts of their bodies. 
Our curiofity, which often led us to meafure them, gave 
them an opportunity of making frequent companions of 
their bodily llrength with ours. Thefe comparifons were 
not to our advantage; and we perhaps owe our misfor¬ 
tunes at Maouna to the idea of individual fuperiority, 
refulting from repeated trials. Their countenances often 
appeared to exprefs a fentiment of difdain, which I hoped 
t-o deftroy by ordering our arms to be ufed in their pre¬ 
fence; but my end could only have been gained by di- 
redling them againll human victims; for otherwife, they 
took the noife for fport, and the trial for a diverlion. 
Among thefe Indians a very fmall number are below the 
height indicated above. I have, however, meafured fe- 
veral who were only five feet four inches, but thefe are 
the dwarfs of the country ; and, although their llature 
refembles ours, their llrong and nervous arms, their 
bread chells, and their legs and thighs, are of a very dif¬ 
ferent proportion. 
“ The men have the body painted or tattooed, fo that 
any one would fuppofe them clad., although they go al- 
moft naked. They have only a girdle of fea-weeds en¬ 
circling the loins, which comes down to their knees, and 
gives them the appearance of the river-gods of fabulous 
hiftory, whom it is cullomary to depidl with rullies round 
their waift. Their hair is very long: they often twill it 
round their heads, and thus add to their native ferocity 
of countenance, which always expreffes furprife or anger. 
The leaft difpute between them is followed by blows of 
VOL. XVI. No. 1142. 
N A U 637 
Hicks, clubs, or paddles; and often, without doubt, cods 
the combatants their lives. They are almoft all covered 
with fears, which can only be the confequence of their 
individual quarrels. The llature of the women is pro¬ 
portioned to that of the men : they are tall, (lender, and 
not without grace; but they lofe, while yet in their prime, 
their elegant forms. Among a great number of women, 
that I had the opportunity of feeing, I obferved three 
really pretty. Thegrofs effrontery and indecency of the 
reft rendered them fit mothers and wives for the ferocious 
beings that furrounded us. 
“ Thefe illanders manufacture very fine mats, and fome 
paper Huffs. I remarked two or three of them, whom I 
took for chiefs, with a piece of cloth tied round their 
waift like a petticoat, inftead of a girdle of weeds: it is 
compofed of real thread, prepared no doubt from fome 
filamentous plant like the nettle or flax; and is manu¬ 
factured without a fhuttle, the threads-being abfolutely 
laid over one another like thofe of their mats. This cloth, 
which has all the fupplenefs and folidity of ours, is very 
fit for the fails of their canoes, and appeared to us far 
fuperior to the paper Hulls of the Society and Friendly 
Illands, which they manufaClure alfo. We did not at 
firll difeover any identity between their language and 
that of the natives of the Society and Friendly Illands of 
which we had vocabularies; but mature: - examination 
convinced us, that they fpeak a dialed of the fame lan¬ 
guage. It appears to me evident, that all thefe different 
nations are the progeny of Malay colonies, which, in 
fome age extremely remote, conquered the illands they 
inhabit. The feudal government is alfo preferved here, 
which is the moll proper to keep up a ferocity of manners, 
becaufe the fmallelt difputes occafion wars of village 
againll village ; and becaufe wars of this nature are con- 
duded without magnanimity and without courage. Sur- 
prifes and treachery are employed by turns; and in thefe 
unfortunate countries, inftead of generous warriors, no¬ 
thing is to be found but bafe affalfins. The Malays are 
Hill the moll perfidious nation of Alia; and their children 
have not degenerated, becaufe the fame caufes have led 
to and produced the fame effeds. 
“ It is not without realon that M. de Bougainville 
has named them the Navigators. They do not go fo 
much as from one village to another on foot, but perform 
all their journeys in canoes. Their villages are all 
fituated in creeks by the fea-fide, and have no paths ex¬ 
cept to penetrate into the interior of the country. The 
illands we vilited were covered to the very l'ummit with 
fruit-trees, on which wood-pigeons, turtle-doves of green, 
red, and of various other colours, were fitting. We law 
alfo beautiful parroquets, a fpecies of blackbird, and even 
partridges. It is by taming birds, that the natives charm 
away the tedium that refults from their idle mode of life. 
All their houfes were full of wood-pigeons, which they 
bartered with us by hundreds: they alfo fold us more 
than 300 gallinules, of the mod beautiful plumage. Thele 
illands are exceedingly fertile, and molt probably their 
population is in proportion. The eaftern ones, Opoun, 
Leone, and Fanfoue, are fmall, efpecially the laft two, 
which are about five miles in circumference; but Maouna, 
Oyolava, and Pola, may be numbered among the largelt 
and moll beautiful of the South Sea.” Lat. 14. 20. S, 
Ion. 169. W. See Maouna, vol. xiv. 
NAVIG'EROUS, ar'j. [from the Lat. navis, a ftiip, and 
fero, to carry.] Capable of bearing a lliip or veffel. Scott. 
NA'VIS, J. [Latin.] A Ihip, or bark. 
NAVIS,): [in old records.] The nave of a church; 
a difli to hold frankincenfe before it was put into the 
cenfer. 
NAV'ITY, f. [ navitas , Latin.] Diligence. Not ufed. 
Hailey. 
NAUL, a fmall town of the county of Dublin, on the 
confines of the county of Meath, near which is a romantic 
glen, overhung with rocks, through which the little ftream 
runs which is the boundary of the two counties; and 
7 2 over 
