1774. gether at the top, forming thereby a kind of Gothic arch.
' *1 ' . The longeft flicks are placed in the middle, and fhorter ones
each way, and at lefs diftance afunder; by which means the
building is higheft and broadeft in the middle, and lower
and narrower towards each end. To thefe. are tied others
horizontally, and the whole is thatched over with leaves of
fugar-cane. The door-way is in the middle of one fide,
formed like a porch, and fo low and narrow, as juft to admit
a man to enter upon all fours. The largeft houfe I faw was
about fixty feet long, eight or nine feet high in the middle,
and three or four at each end; its breadth at thef^ parts,
was nearly equal to its height. Some have a kind of vaulted
houfes built with ftone, and partly under ground; but I
never was in one of thefe.
I faw no houfehold utenfils amongft them except gourds, and
of thefe but very few. They were extravagantly fond of cocoa-
nut fhells; more fo than of any thing we could give them.
They drefs their vidtuals in the fame manner as at Otaheite;
that is, with hot ftones, in an oven or hole in the ground.
The ftraw or tops of fugar-cane, plantain heads, &c. ferve
them for fuel to heat the ftones. Plantains, which require
but little drefling, they roaft under fires of ftraw, dried grafs;
&c.; and whole races of them are ripened or roafted in this
manner. We frequently faw ten, or a dozen, or more, fuch
fires in one place, and. moft commonly in the mornings and.
evenings.
Not more than three or four canoes were feen on the
whole ifland; and thefe very mean, and built of many
pieces fewed together with fmall line. They are about
eighteen or twenty feet long, head and ftern carved or raifed a
little, are very narrow, and fitted with out-riggers. They
do
-9i
do not feem capable of carrying above four perfons, and
are, by no means, fit for any diftant navigation. As 1— -v——1
fmall and as mean as thefe canoes were, it was a matter of
wonder to us, where they got the wood to build them with.
For in one of them was a board fix or eight feet long, fourteen
inches broad at one end, and eight at the other; whereas
we did not fee a flick on the ifland which would have
made a board half this fize; nor indeed was there another
piece in the whole canoe half fo big.
There are-two ways by which it is poffible they "may have
got this large wood: it might have been left here by the
Spaniards ; or it might have been driven on the fhore of the
ifland from fome diftant land. It is even poffible that
there may be fome land in the neighbourhood, from
whence they might have got it. We, however, faw no figns
of any; nor could we get the leaftinformation on this head
from the natives, although we tried every method we could
think of, to obtain it. We were almoft as unfortunate in
our inquiries for the proper or native name of the ifland.
For, on comparing notes, I found we had got three different
names for it, viz. Tamareki, Whyhu, and Teapy. Without
pretending to fay which, or whether any of them, is right,
I fhall only obferve, that the laft was obtained by Oedi-
dee, who qnderftood their language much better than any
of us, though even he underftood it but very imperfectly.
It appears by the account of Roggewein’s voyage, that
thefe people had no better veflels than when he firft- vifited;
them. The want of materials, and not of genius, feems to-
be the reafon why they have made no improvement in this?
art. Some pieces of carving were found amongft, them,,
both welL defigned and executed.. Their plantations are
prettily