POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
41 
beach^ the prow of our vessel was turned to the northward, 
and we moved slowly along in a direction nearly parallel 
with the coast. After advancing in this manner for 
some time, we saw several canoes put off from the land, 
and not less than thirty were afterwards seen paddling 
round our vessel. There were neither females nor chil¬ 
dren in any of the canoes. The men were not tataued, 
and wore only a girdle of yellow ti leaves round their 
waists. Their bodies, neither spare nor corpulent, were 
finely shaped; their complexion a dark copper colour; 
their features regularly formed; and their countenances, 
often handsome, were shaded by long black straight or 
curling hair. Notwithstanding all our endeavours to 
induce them to approach the ship, they continued for a 
long time at some distance, viewing us with apparent 
surprise and suspicion. At length, one of the canoes, 
containing two men and a boy, ventured alongside. Per¬ 
ceiving a lobster lying among a number of spears at the 
bottom of the canoe, I intimated, by signs, my wish to 
have it, and the chief readily handed it up. I gave him, 
in return, two or three middle-sized fish-hooks; which, 
after examining rather curiously, he gave to the boy, 
who, being destitute of any pocket, or even article of 
dress on which he could fasten them, instantly deposited 
them in his mouth, and continued to hold with both 
hands the rope hanging from our ship. The principal 
person in the canon appearing willing to come on board, 
I pointed to the rope he was grasping, and put out my 
hand to assist him up the ship’s side. He involuntarily 
laid hold of it, but could scarcely have felt my hand 
grasping his, when he instantly drew it back, and, raising 
it to his nostrils, smelt at it most significantly, as if to 
ascertain with what kind of a being he had come in con- 
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