6o L I E U T E N A N T CO O K ’ s V O Y A G E
I77°-
March. four,'and the blade two. By the help o f thefe oars they pufh
on their boats with amazing velocity.
In failing they are hot expert, having no art of going
otherwife than before the wind: the fail is of netting or
matt, which is fet up between two poles that are fixed up-
fighr upon each guhwale, and ferve both for mails and
yards | two ropes anfwered the purpofe of fheets, and were
confequently fallened above to the top of each pole. But
cltimfy and inconvenient as this apparatus is, they make good
way before the wind, and are fleered by two men who fit in
the fterni with each a paddle in his hand for that: purpofe.. ”
Having faid thus much of their workmarilhip, I mail now
give fome account of their tools; they have adzes, axes, and
chiffels, which ferve them alfo as augers for the boring of
holes: as they have no metal, their adzes and axes are made
of a hard black ilone, or o f a green talc, which is not only
hard but tough; and their chiffels of human bone, or fmall
fragments of jafper, which they chip off from a block in
fliarp angular pieces like a gun-flint. Their axes they value
above all that they poffefs, and never would part with one of
them for any thing that we could give: I once offered one
of the beft axes I had in the fhip, befides a number of other
things for one of them, but the owner would not fell it ;
from which I conclude that good ones are fcarce among
them. Their fmall tools of jafper, which are ufed in finifh-
ing their niceft work, they ufe till they are blunt,, and then,,
as they have no means of fharpening them, throw them
away. We had given the people at Tolaga a piece of glafs,.
and in a lhort time they found means to drill a hole through
it, in order to hang it round the neck as an ornament by a
thread ; and we imagine the tool mull have been a piece of
this jafper. How they bring their large tools firll to an
edge,
177» March.
r o u n d t h e w o r l d .
edge, and fharpen the-weapon which they call Pat0°-Pa“ ° ’
we could not certainly learn; but probably it is by bruff g
the fame fubftance to powder, and, with this, grin mg two
pieces againft each other.
Their nets, particularly their feine, which is of an enor- N .,
mousfize, have been mentioned already: oneof * e fe feem
to be the joint work of a whole town, and I fuppofe it to
the joint property alfo: the other net, which is circular, and
extended by two or three hoops, has been pamculariy
feribed as well as the manner of baiting and ufing, * • Th
hooks are of bone or fhell, and in general are 11 m e. T a
receive the fifli when it is caught, and to hold their othe
provifions, they have balkets of various kinds and dimeiv
lions, very neatly made of wicker-work.
They excel in tillage, as might naturally be expected T A *
where the perfon that fows is to eat the produce, and where
There is folittle befides that can be eaten: when we firft
came to T e g a d o o , a diftrift between Poverty Bay and Ealt
Cape, their crops were juft covered, and had not yet begun
to fprout; the mould was as fmooth as in a garden, and
every root had its fmall hillock, ranged in a regular quincunx
by lines, which with the pegs were ftiU remaining in
the field. We had not an opportunity to fee any of thefe
hulbandmen work, but we faw what ferves them at once
for fpade and plough: this inftrument is nothing more than,
a long narrow flake fharpened to an edge at one end, with a
lhort piece fallened tranfverfely at a little diftance above it
for the convenience of preffmg it down with the foot. With,
this they turn up pieces of ground fix or feven acres^ “ *
tent, though it is not more than three inches broad;, but as-
, 1 r - i kM mzAsr ir makes little refiftance*