A N AC COUNT OF 
veflels of this fort in many other countries, thought thofe of 
Pelew furpaffed in neatnefs and beauty any they had ever 
met with elfewhere ; the tree out of which they were formed 
grew to a very con fider able height, and refembled much the 
Englifh Aih.—They were painted red, both within and with¬ 
out *, and inlaid with fhells in different forms.—When they 
went out in flate, the heads and herns were adorned with a 
variety of fhells fining on a cord, and hung in feftoons.—The 
fmallefl veffel that they built could hold four or five people, 
the largefl were able to contain from twenty-five to thirty.— 
They carried an outrigger, but only on one fide; and ufed 
latine fails made of matting.—As they were not calculated to 
refill a very rough fea, they rarely went without the coral 
reef, and feldom, within it, had any violent fea to encounter, 
whenever it blew hard the natives always kept clofe under 
fliore.—In vifits of ceremony, when the King or the great 
Rupacks approached the place where they intended to land, 
the rowers Aourifhed their paddles with wonderful ad- 
drefs, and the canoes advanced with a flately movement; 
at other times they got on with an amazing velocity.—- 
When they went againfl Artingall, the little canoes, 
* As their mode of applying their paint was uncommon, it may merit being parti¬ 
cularly defcribed:—The colours are crumbled with the hand into water, whilft it is 
warming over a gentle fire in earthen pots; they carefully fkim from the furface what¬ 
ever dry leaves or dirt may float on the top; when they find it fufficiently thick, they 
apply it warm, and let it dry upon the wood: the next day they rub it well over with 
cocoa-nut oil ; and, with the dry hulk of the cocoa-nut, give it, by repeated rubbing, 
a polifih and liability that the waves cannot walh off, 
which 
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