THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
395 
great part of their time in clofe attendance upon the Chiefs, 
can have little ufe for their own houfes, but in. the lafi 
cafe. 
They make amends for the defects of their houfes, by 
their great attention to, and dexterity in, naval archi¬ 
tecture, if I may be allowed to give it that name. But I 
refer to the narrative of my laft voyage, for an account of 
their canoes, and their manner of building and navigating 
them *. 
The only tools which they ufe, to conftruCt thefe boats, 
are hatchets, or rather thick adzes, of a fmooth black ftone 
that abounds at Toofoa; augers, made of fhark’s teeth, 
fixed on fmall handles ; and rafps, of a rough fkin of a fi£h, 
faftened on fiat pieces of wood, thinner on one fide, which 
alfo have handles. The labour and time employed in ft- 
milling their canoes, which are the moft perfect of their 
mechanical productions, will account for their being very 
careful of them. For they are built and preferved under 
flieds ; or they cover the decked part of them with cocoa- 
leaves, when they are hauled on fhore, to prevent their 
being hurt by the fun. 
The fame tools are all they have for other works ; if we 
except different fhells, which they ufe as knives. But there 
are few of their productions that require thefe, unlefs it be 
fome of their weapons; the other articles being chiefly 
their filhing materials, and cordage. 
The cordage is made from the fibres of the cocoa-nut 
hulk, which, though not more than nine or ten inches long, 
they plait, about the fize of a quill, or lefs, to any length 
* Cook’s Voyage, VoL i. p. 215, 216. The reader, by comparing that account, 
with what Cantova fays of the fea-boats of the Caroline Iflands, will find, in this inftance, 
alfo, the greateft fimilarity. See Letires Edifiantes et Curieufes , p, 286. 
3 E 2 
that 
