240 SANTA CRUZ. 
built up with cross-timbers projecting on both sides, the timbers being 
tied with sennit. To keep the log upright there is a float of light wood 
into which strong stakes are driven; these are then fastened with sennit 
lashings and the other ends are made fast to the timbers of the stage. 
On the outrigger side of the stage there is a little apartment with walls 
and roof of sago palm, where a fire can be made, and on the opposite 
side is a sloping platform where the steersman stands holding his long 
paddle and where the merchandise is carried. 
The sail of these canoes is shaped like that of the New Guinea sailing 
canoes, a swallow tail, and is made of sago-palm leaf. “The canoes sail 
either end first. The Cruzians make great voyages in these canoes, 
the Matema people journeying to Vanikolo, the better part of 100 
miles away. At times the sailing canoes are driven out of their course 
and reach the Solomon Islands. In one of the schools at Ulawa a 
large, wide plank, which was part of the well of one of these canoes, 
served as a table in the school-house. The wood was that beautiful 
rosewood known in Ulawa as /iki and had been cut from the big flanges 
of the tree; it was a rich red in color and the graining was beautiful. 
The plank was sawed up to make the credence in the Mwadoa Church, 
Ulawa. 
The voyagers in these canoes experience great hardship at times 
when driven out of their course by rough winds. The Southern Cross 
rescued recently some natives out of a tepukei far out of sight of land. 
They had been at sea for a fortnight. A case is reported of a canoe 
with Christians on board returning from Taumako. The wind proved 
unfavorable and for ten days they were out of sight of land. Then 
water gave out and in their despair they prayed for rain. The next 
day a favorable wind sprang up accompanied by heavy showers, and 
they were able to catch some water, and then, marvellous to relate, 
they knew their position and steered for home. 
Ulawa has frequently received these tempest-driven canoes. In 
former days the crews were killed, but during Christian times their 
lives have been preserved. Some of them have married and settled 
down in Ulawa; Ngorangora village had a Reef Island woman who 
had married there. Some of these castaways have built small out- 
rigger canoes and set off for home paddling. At night they steered by 
the stars and they generally managed to reach home. Bishop Selwyn 
in 1878 wrote of a Nupani man who had paddled his way back from 
Ulawa. Some years ago, on the weather coast of Ulawa, just as the 
darkness was coming on, we sighted two Cruzians in one of their small 
canoes. Fires were lighted and every attempt was made to induce 
them to land, but they evidently were afraid of the reception which 
might be awaiting them and they paddled away into the darkness. 
Their power of locating their position is wonderful. Captain Bon- 
gard, of the old Southern Cross, used to tell the story of Te Fonu, one 
