have been planted here by nature, were in a manner choked up. Here and
there ftands a houfe, with fome few people, and plantations: thefe latter were
found in different ftates, fome of long Handing; others lately cleared; and
fome only clearing. The clearing a piece of ground for a plantation feemed
to be a work of much labour, confidering the tools they had to work w ith;
which, though much inferior to thofe of the Society Ifles, are of the fame
p. 69. kind. As neither Captain Cook nor any of his people were fuffered to go far
into the country, the internal ftate of the ifland cannot be exaftly known.
One part, however, they found well cultivated, open and airy; the plantations
were laid out by line, abounding with plantains, fugar canes, yams, and other
roots, and itocked with fruit trees.
J>- 77- The produce of the ifland is bread fruit, plantains, cocoa nuts, a fruit like
a neitarine, yams, tarra, a fort of potatoe, fugar canes, wild figs, a fruit like
an orange, which is not eatable, and fome other fruits and nuts, the names of
of which they did not know: the yams are in great plenty, and of an excellent
quality; they procured one which weighed fifty-fix pounds, every ounce o f
which was good. Hogs did not feem fcarce; but they faw not many fowls:
thefe are the only domeftic animals they have. Land birds are not more numerous
than-at the other iflands; but they met with fome fmall birds, with a very
beautiful plumage, which they had never feen before. There is as great a variety
of trees and plants here, as at any ifland they touched at. The natives feem to
live chiefly on the produce of the land; the fea contributing but little to their
fubfiftence: this feems rather to arife from their being bad filhermen, than the
p. j6. want of fifh on the coaft; as on the 6th of Auguft, fome of the crew, with
three hauls with the feine, caught upwards of three hundred pounds weight of
mullet and other- fiih, and they frequently fupplied themftlves by the fame
means.
p. 67. Their houfes need no other defcription, than comparing them with 'the roof of
a thatched houfe in England, taken off the walls, and placed on the ground.
Some are open at both ends, others partly clofed with reeds, and all covered
with palm thatch; a few of them are thirty or forty feet long, and about fixteen
broad. Befides thefe they have other mean hovels, which, it was fuppofcd,
were only to ileep in.
At
At firft Captain Cook thought the people of Tanna, as well as thofe of p
Erromango, were a race between the natives of the Friendly Ifles and thofe
of Mallicollo; but a little acquaintance with them convinced him that they
had little or no affinity to either, except it be in their hair, which is much like
what the people of the latter ifland have. The ;general colours of it are black
and brown, growing to a tolerable length, and very crifp and curly: they
feparate.it into fmall locks, which they cue round.with the rind of a flender
plant down to about an inch of the ends; and as the hair grows, the cuing is
continued: each of thefe locks is fomewhat thicker than common whipcord;
and they look like a parcel of fmall firings hanging down from the crown of
their heads. Their beards, which are ftrong and buihy, are generally Ihort.
The women do not wear their hair as the men, but cropped; nor do the boys
till they approach manhoqd.
I ^hefe people are of a middle fize, rather flender than otherwife; many are p
little, but few tall or ftout; the moft of them have good features, and agreeable
countenances; they are, like all the tropical race, aflive and nimble, and feem to
excel in the ufe of arms, but not to be fond of labour. The females do all p
the laborious work. Though thefe cannot be faid to be beauties, they are pro-
portionably handfome with the men, and too handfome for the drudgeries they
are made to do. Both fexes are of a very dark colour, but not black; nor have
they the leaft charafteriftic of the negro about them. They make themfelves
blacker than they really are, by painting their faces with a pigment of the
colour of black lead; they alfo ufe another fort, which is red; and a third fort
brown, or a colour between black and red: all thefe, efpecially the firft, they
lay °n with a liberal hand, not only on the face, but on the neck, ihoulders
and breaft. The men wear nothing but the belt and wrapping leaf, as at
Mallicollo. The women have a kind of petticoat made of the filaments of the
plantain trees, of flags, or fome fuch thing, which reaches below the knee
Both fexes wear ornaments, fuch as bracelets, ear-rings, necklaces, and amulets."
They make ufe of two languages: one in common with their neighbours/
the inhabitants of Erromango and Annatom, which is properly their own; *
and another, with the people of Erronam, which is nearly, if not exaitly”
^ r the