$98
s»pT£MBiR. cylindrical cap which he wore, made him appear at leaf!
eight inches higher. Many of thefe caps were ornamented
with the feathers of the Ceylonefe owl, which is alfo to be
met with here and in the woods of Tanna; and it was
almoft a general cuftom to tie the fling round them, letting
the taffel hang down on the fhoulder. Fern leaves were
likewife no uncommon ornament about thefe caps, which
the natives fold us for Taheitee cloth, though they fet a
great value upon them. The number of ear-rings, which
many of them wore, was remarkable; we obfcrved one who
had no lefs than eighteen, made of tortoife-lhell, an inch in
diameter, and a quarter of an inch in breadth. They
brought a mufical inflrument, a kind of whittle, for fale
this day. It was a little poliftied piece of brown wood,
about two inches long, Ihaped like a bell, though apparently
folid, with a rope fixed at the fmall end. Two holes were
made in it near the bale, and another near the infection of
the rope, all which had fome communication with each
other, and by blowing in the uppermoft, a thrill found, like
whittling, was formed at the other. Befides this, we never
obferved any inftrument among them which had the leaft
relation to -mufic. They had now begun to take our large
fpike-nails ; but feeing fome round iron bolts in the Ihip,
to which fome of the cordage is fattened (commonly called
bclaying-pins), they conftantly fhewed a great defire of
poflelfing them. They did not attempt to take the leaft
trifle
trifle by Health, behawing with the ftrifteft honefty and propriety
on board. Many came fwimming from the ftiore,
which was better than a mile off, holding their piece of
brown cloth out of the water with one hand, whilft with
the other they moved forwards, and brought with them a
fpear, or a club, though not of the fort which is made of
cafuarina wood, that being too heavy to be conveyed in fuch
a manner.
We embarked in a boat after dinner, and landed near
1774- Se p t emb e
two miles to the weft of our watering-place, on a point
which formed the bay where our Ihip lay at anchor. Here
captain Cook took fome bearings, whilft we purfued our
refearches. Immediately on the beach we found a large
irregular mafs of rock, not lefs than a cube of ten feet,
which confifted of a clofe-grained horn-ftone, fpeckled full
of garnets, fomewhat bigger than pins heads. This dif-
cov.ery confirmed.what we had before conjectured, viz. that
there was fome probability of meeting with rich and ufeful
minerals upon this, ifland,. which, as far as we faw,. dif-
tinguifhed itfelf from all thofe we had hitherto examined
in the South Seas, in being entirely deftitute of volcanic
productions.. From this rock we {truck into the woods
which lined the fhore, and which happened to be very
thick in this part to a fliort diftance on all fides.- Here we
found a few young bread-fruit-trees, not yet fufficiently
g,rown to bear fruit; but they feemed to have come up*
without