The scarlet birds, which were brought for fale, were never met with alive; but we faw a fingle small one, about the fize of a canary-bird, of a deep crimson colour; a large owl; two large brown hawks, or kites; and a wild duck; and it is probable there are a great many forts; judging by the quantity of fine yellow, green, and very fimall velvet-like, black feathers, used upon the cloaks, and other ornaments, worn by the inhabitants. Fish, and other marine productions, were, to appearance, not various. The hogs, dogs, and fowls, which were the only tame or domeftic animals that we found here, were all of the fame kind that we met with at the South Pacific Islands. The inhabitants are of a middling ftature, firmly made. Their vifage, efpecially amongst the women, is fometimes round; but we cannot fay that they are diftinguished, as a nation, by any general caft of countenance. Their colour is nearly of a nut-brown. The women are little more delicate than the men in their formation; and I may fay that, with a very few exceptions, they have little claim to thofe peculiarities that distinguish the fex in other countries. There is, indeed, a more remarkable equality in the fize, colour, and figure of both fexes, than in most places I have vitited. They are very expert fwimmers. It was very common to fee women with infants at the breast, when the furf was fo high that they could not land in the canoes, leap overboard, and, without endangering their little ones, fwim to the fhore through a fea that looked dreadful. They feem to be bleft with a frank, cheerful fpofition; they live very fociably in their intercourfe tercourfe with one another; and, except the propenfity to thieving, which feems innate in most of the people we have vifited in this ocean, they were exceedingly friendly to us. It was a pleafure to obferve with how much affection the women manage their infants, and how readily the men lent their affiftance to fuch a tender office; thus fufficiently diftinguifling themselves from thofe favages, who esteem a wife and child as things rather neceffary than defirable, or worthy of their notice. Though they feem to have adopted the mode of living in villages, there is no appearance of defence, or fortification, near any of them; and the houses are scattered about without any order. Some are large and commodious, from forty to fifty feet long, and twenty or thirty broad, while others of them are mere hovels. They are well thatched with long grafs, which is laid on flender poles, difpofed with fome regularity. The entrance is made indifferently in the end or fide, and is an oblong hole, fo low, that one must rather creep than walk in. No light enters the hofe, but by this opening; and though fuch clofe habitations may afford a comfortable retreat in bed weather, they seem but ill adapted to the warmth of the climate. Of animal food they can be in no want, as they have abundance of hogs, which run without refraint about the hoafes; and if they eat dogs, which is rot improbable, their flock of thefe feemed to be very confiderable. The great number of fishing-hooks found amongst them, fhewed that they derived no inconfiderable fupply of animal food from the fea. They bake their vegetable food with heated ftones, in the fame manner as the inhabitants the fouthern iflands. The only artificial. difh we met with, was a taro pudding; which, though a difagreeable mefs, from its fournefs, was greedily devoured by the natives. In every thing manufactured by these people, there appears to be an uncommon degree of neatnefs and ingenuity. Their cloth, which is the principal manufacture, is made from the morus papyrifera; and doubtlefs in the fame manner as at Otaheite and Tongataboo; in colouring or ftaining it, the people of Atooi difplay a fuperiority of tafte, by the endless variation of figures which they execute. They fabricate a great many white mats, which are ftrong, with many red ftripes, rhombufes, and other figures interwoven on one fide; and often pretty large. They ftain their gourd-fhells prettily with undulated lines, triangles, and other figures of a black colour; inftances of which we faw practifed at New Zealand. Their wooden dishes and bowls, out of which they drink their ava, are of the etooa-tree, or cordia, as neat as if made in our turning-lathe, and perhaps better polished. A great variety of fishing-hooks are ingenioufly made of pearl fhell. One fishing-hook was procured, nine inches long, of a fingle piece of bone, which doubtless belonged to fome large fith. The elegant form and polifh of this could not certainly be outdone by any European artift, even if he fhould add all his knowledge in defign to the number and convenience of his tools. The only iron tools, or rather bits of iron, feen amongst them, and which they had before our arrival, were a piece of iron hoop, about two inches Jong, fitted into a wooden handle; and another edge edge-tool, which our people gueffed to be made of the point of a broad-fword. How they came by them I cannot account for. Though I did not fee a chief of any note, there were, however, feveral, as the natives informed us, who refide upou Atcoi, and to whom they proftrate themfelves as a mark of fubmiffion. After I had left the island, one of the chiefs made his appearance, and paid a vifit to Captain Clerke on board the Discovery. His attendants helped him into the thip, and placed him on the gang way. Their care of him did not cease then ; for they flood round him, holding each other by the hands; nor would they fuffer any one to come near him but Captain Clerke himfelf. He was a young man, clothed from head to foot, accompanied by a young woman, fuppofed to be his wife. His name was faid to be Tamahano. Captain Clerke made him fome fuitable prefents; and received from him, in return, a large bowl, fupported by two figures of men, the carving of which, both as to the defign and the execution, fhewed fome degree of fkill. In their language they had not only adopted the foft mode of the Otaheiteans in avoiding harth founds, but the whole idiom of their language; ufing not only the fame affixes and fuffixes to their words, but the fame meafure and cadence in their fongs; though in a manner fomewhat lefs agreeable. How happy would Lord Anfon have been, and what hardthips would he have avoided, if he had known that there was a group of islands, hair way between America and Tinian, where all his wants could have been effectually fupplied; and in defcribing which, the elegant hiftorian of th voyage, would have prefented his reader with a more agreeable picture than I have been able to draw. On the 2d of February, we ftood away to the northward, and without meeting with any thing memorable, on the 7th of March, the long-looked for coaft of New Albion * was feen, extending from north-eaft to fouth-eaft, diftant ten or twelve leagues. The land appeared to be of a moderate height, diverfified with hills and valleys, and almoft every where covered with wood. After coafting along, and combating contrary winds, on the 29th we anchored in eighty-five fathoms water, fo near the fhore as to reach it with a hawfer.. We no fooner drew near the inlet, than we found the coaft to be inhabited; and three canoes came off to the fhip. In one of these were two men, in another fix, and in the third ten. Having come pretty near us, a perfon in one of the two laft ftood up, and made a long harangue, inviting us to land, as we gueffed by his geftures. At the fame time he kept ftrewing handfuls of feathers towards us; and fome of his companions threw handfuls of red duft or powder in the fame manner. The perfon who performed the office of orator, wore the skin of fome animal, and held, in each hand, fomething which rattled as he kept fhaking it. After tiring hinfelf with his repeated exhortations, of which we did not understand a word, he was quiet. After the tumultuous oration had ceafed, one of them fung a very agreeable air, with a degree of foftness and me This part of the weft fide of North America, was fo nam- lody |
