SINGLE, Or ISLAND CANOE. 161 
is firmly and ingeniously fastened to the sides 
by repeated bands of cinet, floats on the sur¬ 
face. In addition to this, the island canoes have 
a strong plank, twelve or fourteen feet long, fast¬ 
ened horizontally across the centre, in an inclined 
position, one end attached to the outrigger, and 
the other extending five or six feet over the oppo¬ 
site side, and perhaps elevated four or five feet 
above the sea. A small railing of rods is fastened 
along the sides of this plank, and it is designed to 
assist the navigators in balancing the keel, as a 
native takes his station on the one side or the 
other, to counteract the inclination which the wind 
or sea might give to the vessel. Sometimes they 
approach the shore with a native standing or sit¬ 
ting on the extremity of the plank, and presenting 
a singular appearance, which it is impossible to 
behold without expecting every undulation of the 
sea will detach him from his apparently insecure 
situation, and precipitate him into the water. 
Single , or Island Canoe . 
This kind of canoe (see next page,) is principally 
employed in the voyages which the natives make to 
Tetuaroa , a cluster of islands, five in number, 
to the north of Tahiti. 
In navigating their double canoes, the natives 
frequently use two sails, but in their single vessels 
only one. The masts are moveable, and are only 
raised when the sails are used. They are slightly 
fixed upon a step placed across the canoe, and 
fastened by strong ropes or braces extending to 
both sides, and to the stem and stern. The sails 
were made with the leaves of the pandanus split 
into thin strips, neatly woven into a kind of mat- 
M 
