74 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
at first to a stand. We were glad to furnish the cliiefs 
and others with these most valuable articles, so far as 
our stock would allow, but it was useless to think of 
supplying the wants of the entire population; we only 
regretted that we could not have more ready access 
to our friends in England, many of whom, we had no 
doubt, would readily have supplied them with an arti¬ 
cle easily procured in abundance there, but which was 
here exceedingly scarce. Nails are still among the 
most valuable manufactures they can receive. Their 
invention and perseverance at length overcame the diffi¬ 
culty, and they constructed their doors by fastening 
together three upright boards, about six feet long, by 
means of three narrow pieces placed across, one at 
each end, the other in the middle. These latter were 
fastened to the long boards by strong wooden pegs. 
What the pegs wanted in strength, they determined 
to supply by numbers, and I think I have seen upwards 
of fifty or sixty hard pegs driven through one of these 
cross-pieces into the boards forming the door. In 
order to prevent their dropping out when the wood 
shrunk by the heat, they drove small wedges into the 
ends of the pegs, which frequently kept them secure. 
In the same manner they fastened most of their floors 
to the sleepers underneath, using, however, large pegs 
resembling the treenails in a ship’s plank, more than 
the nails in a house-floor. 
When the door was made, it was necessary to hang 
it; but only a few of the most highly favoured were, 
for many years, able to procure iron hinges. Some 
substituted tough pieces of fish-skin, pieces of the skin 
of other animals, or leather procured from the ships; 
but these soon broke, and many of the natives set to 
