If necessity is the mother of invention, it cannot be supposed to have
been much exerted where the liberality of Nature has rendered the
diligence of Art almost superfluous; yet there are many instances both
of ingenuity and labour among these people, which, considering the want
of metal for tools, do honour to both.

Their principal manufacture is their cloth, in the making and dyeing of
which I think there are some particulars which may instruct even the
artificers of Great Britain, and for that reason my description will be
more minute.

Their cloth is of three kinds; and it is made of the bark of three
different trees, the Chinese paper mulberry, the bread-fruit tree, and
the tree which resembles the wild fig-tree of the West Indies.

The finest and whitest is made of the paper mulberry, _Aouta_; this is
worn chiefly by the principal people, and when it is dyed red takes a
better colour. A second sort, inferior in whiteness and softness, is
made of the bread-fruit tree, _Ooroo_, and worn chiefly by the interior
people; and a third of the tree that resembles the fig, which is coarse
and harsh, and of the colour of the darkest brown paper: This, though it
is less pleasing both to the eye and to the touch, is the most valuable,
because it resists water, which the other two sorts will not. Of this,
which is the most rare as well as the most useful, the greater part is
perfumed, and worn by the chiefs as a morning dress.

All these trees are propagated with great care, particularly the
mulberry, which covers the largest part of the cultivated land, and is
not fit for use after two or three years growth, when it is about six or