POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
177 
degree of its contents. Swimming along by the side of 
it^ they bale out the rest, and then climb into it again, 
and pursue their voyage. This has frequently been the 
case ; and, unless the canoe is broken by upsetting or 
filling, they are seldom prevented from accomplishing 
their voyage. The only evil they fear in such circum¬ 
stances is that of being attacked by sharks, which have 
sometimes made sad havock among those who have 
been wrecked at sea. 
An instance of this kind occurred a few years ago, 
when a number of chiefs and people, all together thirty- 
two, were passing from one island to another, in a large 
double canoe. They were overtaken by a severe tempest, 
the violence of which tore their canoes asunder, and 
separated them from the horizontal spars by which they 
were united. It was in vain for them to endeavour to 
place them upright, or empty out the water, for they 
could not keep them in an erect position, nor prevent 
their incessant overturning. As their only resource, they 
collected the scattered spars and boards, and constructed 
a raft, on which they hoped they might drift to land. 
The weight of the whole number, who were now col¬ 
lected on the raft, was so great as to sink it so far below 
the surface, that they sometimes stood above their knees 
in water. They made very little progress, and soon 
became exhausted by fatigue and hunger. In this con¬ 
dition they were attacked by a number of sharks. 
Destitute of a knife, or any other weapon of defence, 
they fell an easy prey to these rapacious monsters. One 
after another was seized and devoured, or carried away 
by them; and the survivors, who with dreadful anguish 
beheld their companions thus destroyed, saw the num¬ 
ber of assailants apparently increasing, as each body 
2 a 
