POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 475 
and the work has often been retarded by the repairs 
that the wheel or its appendages have required. 
Several of the best native carpenters have^ however, 
readily come forward to repair the wheel, and have 
received their payment in cloth made at the factory. 
The derangement of the machinery suspending the 
work of the spinners, some of them requested to take 
tjie cotton home, to prepare and spin at their own 
houses. The experiment has succeeded far beyond 
what was anticipated, and the natives now bring to 
the factory for sale the cotton yarn spun at their own 
dwellings, and ready at once for the loom. 
This circumstance, though insignificant, is one of the 
most interesting that has yet transpired in connexion 
with this enterprise. The natives are now convinced 
that they can make cloth; others, besides those taught 
in the factory, will desire to learn; and as they can 
prepare and spin the cotton at their own dwellings, 
this employment, which is certainly adapted to their 
climate and habits, as they can take it up and lay 
it down at their convenience, will probably be very 
extensively followed through the islands. The native 
carpenters will be able to make looms, as they have 
made turning-lathes, which, though rude, will be such as 
will answer their purpose. The spinning-wheel will also 
become an article of furniture in most of their houses; 
and the father, the brother, and the son, will have the 
satisfaction of wearing native or home-spun garments, 
made with cotton grown in their own gardens or 
plantations, and spun by their wives’ or sisters’ or 
daughters’ hands. The Tahitian, like the Indian weaver, 
may, perhaps, be seen fixing his rude and simple loom 
under the shadow of the cocoa-nut, or the banana tree. 
