104 A V O Y A G E R O U N D THE WO R L D.
M*r. habits, and had targets, but no helmets. There were
alfo fome little boys, who wore the dreffes, and parried
the fpears with as great agility as grown people.
Their method was to reft the point of a fpear or long
battle-axe on the ground before them, fo that it made an
angle of about 25 or 30 deg. with the ground. With the
other end, which they held in their hand, they contrived to
keep the fpear always in the middle, right before the body.
By this means the fpear of the adverfary always Aid off on
one fide or the other, without ever coming near the body.
Some of the canoes likewife performed part of their manoeuvre.
They came fingly one after another through the
narrow entrance of the reef; but as foonas they were within,
they formed in a line, and joined clofe together. On
the middlemoft canoe there was a man placed behind the
fighting ftage, who gave fignals with a green branch to the
rowers, either to paddle to the right or left.- The movement
in confequence of his command was in perfedf tune,
and fa very regular, that it feemed as if all the paddles
were parts of the fame machine which moved fome hundred
arms at once. Thifr man might be compared to the
KsAstiojf in the fhips. of the ancient Greeks r indeed, the
view of the Taheitian fleet'frequently brought to our mind
an idea of the naval «force which that nation employed in
the firft ages of its exiftence, and induced us to compare
them together. The Greeks were doubtlefs better armed,
having
A V O Y A G E ROUND THE WORLD. 1 os
having the ufe of metals; but it feemed plain, from the m£7£
writings of Homer, in fpight of poetical embelliihment,
that their mode of fighting was irregular, and their arms
fimple, like thofe of Taheitee. The united efforts of Greece
againff Troy, in remote antiquity, could not be much more
confiderable than the armament of O-Too againft the ifle of
Eimeo; and the boafted milk carina, were probably not more
formidable than a fleet of large canoes, which require
from fifty to an hundred and twenty men to paddle them.
The navigation of the Greeks in thofe days was not more
extenfive than that which is pratffifed by the Taheitians at
prefent, being confined to fhort paffages from ifland. to
ifland; and as the ftars at night direfted the mariners
through the Archipelago at that time, fo they ftill continue
to guide others in the i Pacific ocean. The Greeks were
brave; but the numerous wounds o f the Taheitian chiefs,
are all proofs of their fpirit and prowefs. It feems to be
certain, that in their battles, they rouze themfqlves into a
kind of phrenzy, and that their bravery is a violent fit of
paffion. From Homer’s battles it is evident, that the he-
roifm which produced the wonders he records, was exaftly
of the fame nature. Let us for a moment be allowed to
carry this comparifon ftill farther. The heroes of Homer
are reprefented to us as men of fupernatural fize and force.
The Taheitian chiefs, compared to the common people,
are fo much fuperior in ftature and elegance of form, that
Vol, II. P they