very little to add on those heads. Captain Cook has already described the
figure of the canoes we saw at Atooi. Those of the other islands were
precisely the same; and the largest we saw was a double canoe, belonging to
Terreeoboo, which measured seventy feet in length, three and a half in
depth, and twelve in breadth; and each was hollowed out of one tree.

The progress they have made in sculpture, their skill in painting cloth,
and their manufacturing of mats, have been all particularly described. The
most curious specimens of the former, which we saw during our second visit,
are the bowls in which the chiefs drink _ava_. These are usually about
eight or ten inches in diameter, perfectly round, and beautifully polished.
They are supported by three, and sometimes four small human figures, in
various attitudes. Some of them rest on the hands of their supporters,
extended over the head; others on the head and hands; and some on the
shoulders. The figures, I am told, are accurately proportioned, and neatly
finished, and even the anatomy of the muscles, in supporting the weight,
well expressed.

Their cloth is made of the same materials, and in the same manner, as at
the Friendly and Society Islands. That which is designed to be painted, is
of a thick and strong texture, several folds being beat and incorporated
together; after which it is cut in breadths, about two or three feet wide,
and is painted in a variety of patterns, with a comprehensiveness and
regularity of design that bespeaks infinite taste and fancy. The exactness
with which the most intricate patterns are continued is the more
surprising, when we consider that they have no stamps, and that the whole
is done by the eye, with pieces of bamboo-cane dipped in paint; the hand
being supported by another piece of the cane, in the manner practised by
our painters. Their colours are extracted from the same berries, and other
vegetable substances, as at Otaheite, which have been already described by