agreeable countenances; are, like all the tropical race, active and nimble;
and seem to excel in the use of arms, but not to be fond of labour. They
never would put a hand to assist in any work we were carrying on, which the
people of the other islands used to delight in. Bat what I judge most from,
is their making the females do the most laborious work, as if they were
pack-horses. I have seen a woman carrying a large bundle on her back, or a
child on her back and a bundle under her arm, and a fellow strutting before
her with nothing but a club or spear, or some such thing. We have
frequently observed little troops of women pass, to and fro, along the
beach, laden with fruit and roots, escorted by a party of men under arms;
though, now and then, we have seen a man carry a burden at the same time,
but not often. I know not on what account this was done, nor that an armed
troop was necessary. At first, we thought they were moving out of the
neighbourhood with their effects, but we afterwards saw them both carry
out, and bring in, every day.

I cannot say the women are beauties, but I think them handsome enough for
the men, and too handsome for the use that is made of them. Both sexes are
of a very dark colour, but not black; nor have they the least
characteristic of the negro about them. They make themselves blacker than
they really are, by painting their faces with a pigment of the colour of
black-lead. They also use another sort which is red, and a third sort
brown, or a colour between red and black. All these, but especially the
first, they lay on with a liberal hand, not only on the face, but on the
neck, shoulders, and breast. The men wear nothing but a belt, and the
wrapping leaf as at Mallicollo. The women have a kind of petticoat made of
the filaments of the plantain-tree, flags, or some such thing, which
reaches below the knee. Both sexes wear ornaments, such as bracelets,
ear-rings, necklaces, and amulets. The bracelets are chiefly worn by the men;
some made of sea-shells, and others of those of the cocoa-nut. The men also