oil, to fetisfÿ ïhe'g leàt demand ifbr it, .ànd as on the contAry,
the natives o f Bora-bora, and O -T a h iw , cannot mahufaétùre fuch
a prófufion ànd variety o f cloth as they do at O-Taheiteè, where
the.pàper-mulberry-tree is much- cultivated^ there ire perfóns who
•every year undertake à voyage from Tàhëitée to: Tahaw and
Bora-bora,. in-order to barter great quantities o f cloth, for joints
o f thick bambóo-rëeds filled with coco-nut oil. T h e Low-Iflands
have a race o f .dog.s:. with long while hair, which the. natives
enlploy in fringing their breaft-plates or war gorgets ; and thefe
low iflanders cannot cultivate the mulberry-tree on their fandy,
barren ledges o f lands, which includés their fait lagoons j therefore
thefe reciprocal wants> form a kind o f commercé, between thé
inhabitants o f the high and low Iflands, and a mutual exchange o f
fupèrfluitiës. T h e red feathers o f parrots are employed in ornaments'
for their warriors, being -fixed1 at the end o f the tàlîels*
which they wear like queues, and likewife in final bundlës tied
together with coco-nut-core, which they make life. o f in order to
fix their attention during their prayersi Th e O-Taheitee parrot
has but few and very dirty red feathers, but more to .the Welt
are iflands,- which have fine parroquets remarkable for beautiful
red feathers. One o f thefe illes is low, and deftitute of inhabitants,
at about ten daysTail from O-Taheitee and is called W hENNu a -
o o r A the Land -of red feathers, to which the people from , the
* -Society
H U M A N S P E C I E S ,
Society-Ifles lbmctimes refort, in order to procure fome o f theit
red feathers, for they ape the moft valuable article .of commerce,
and there is nothing which a Taheitean would not give or grant in
order to acquire fome. o f thefe precious .feathers. W e brought fome
bright red feathers from England, b u t> they foon found out they
were only cocks, feathers, and died, red, and for that reafon did
not efteem themj they took them indeed, but refufed. to. give
any thing in return. Whereas, when we came the, fecond time,
in 1774, tq O-Taheitee after we had been to Tonga Tabu, where
the natives make various ornampnts o f red feathers, we procured
for them not only numbers of hogs, the moft: valuable article o f
trade, but likewife mourning dreifes, which the natives refufed
to part with before, when Mr. Banks was there, and. during our
firft ftay in their happy file.. Th e rage after thefe trifling ornaments
was do great, that Potatoa a chief, whofe magnanimity and
noble way; of thinking, we never queftipned. before, wanted even,
to proftitute his own wife, for a parcel of thefe baubles,. AH kinds
pf iron tools are likewife become great articles o f commerce,.
fince their connexions with Europeans.. T h e Spaniards firft
made the inhabitants o f all thefe iflands acquainted with iron
and I am of opinion that even its O-Taheitean name, is o f Spanifh
origin j for when Otiver van Noort came in the year i 6,o q to
Guaham one of the Ladronp Iflands, he faw more, than 200 canoes:
full
P R I N C I P
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