ean) by rafters lashed across. They were about twenty feet
long, about four feet deep, and the sides rounded with a plank raised
upon them, which was fastened strongly by means of withes. Two of these
canoes were most curiously stained, or painted, all over with black, in
numberless small figures, as squares, triangles, &c. and excelled by far
any thing of that kind I had ever seen at any other island in this
ocean. Our friends here, indeed, seemed to have exerted more skill in
doing this than in puncturing their own bodies. The paddles were about
four feet long, nearly elliptical, but broader at the upper end than the
middle. Near the same place was a hut or shed, about thirty feet long,
and nine or ten high, in which, perhaps, these boats are built; but at
this time it was empty."

"The greatest number of the trees around us were _cocoa-palms_, some
sorts of _hibiscus_, a species of _euphorbia_, and, toward the sea,
abundance of the same kind of trees we had seen at Mangeea Nooe
Nainaiwa, and which seemed to surround the shores of the island in the
same manner. They are tall and slender, not much unlike a cypress, but
with bunches of long, round, articulated leaves. The natives call them
_etoa_. On the ground we saw some grass, a species of _convolvulus_, and
a good deal of _treacle-mustard_. There are also, doubtless, other
fruit-trees and useful plants which we did not see; for, besides several
sorts of _plantains_, they brought, at different times, roots which they
call _taro_, (the _coccos_ of other countries,) a bread-fruit, and a
basket of roasted nuts, of a kidney shape, in taste like a chesnut, but
coarser."

"What the soil of the island may be farther inland we could not tell,
but toward the sea it is nothing more than a bank of coral, ten or
twelve feet high, steep and rugged, except where there are small sandy
beaches at some clefts, where the ascent is gradual. The coral, though
it has probably been exposed to the weather for many centuries, has
undergone no farther change than becoming black on the surface, which,
from its irregularity, is not much unlike large masses of a burnt
substance. But, on breaking some pieces off, we found that, at the depth
of two or three inches, it was just as fresh as the pieces that had been
lately thrown upon the beach by the waves. The reef, or rock, that lines
the shore entirely, runs to different breadths into the sea, where it
ends all at once, and becomes like a high,