ver, that of a dreary waste; the sides of the
mountains and other places being of hard rock, or of a thin soil baked
by the sun. Even these unpromising spots were, however, covered with a
coarse grass, which though of no use, as there were no cattle to feed on
it, would afford pasture to numberless sheep if they were to be
introduced into the island. There was a good supply of fish on the
coast; but one day a somewhat ugly-looking one being dressed for supper,
the captain and the two Mr Forsters, though they did but taste the
liver and roe, were seized with a numbness and weakness over their
limbs. An emetic and a sudorific considerably relieved them by the
morning, but a pig which ate the fish died. A native who had sold the
fish did not warn the buyer, though its poisonous character seems to
have been known to the people, for, on seeing the skin hanging up the
next morning, they expressed their utmost abhorrence of it, and
intimated that it was not fit to eat. The captain was anxious to
benefit the people as far as his short stay would allow; he, therefore,
presented a dog and a bitch to Teabooma, who seemed delighted with the
gift; indeed, he could scarcely suppose that the animals were for him.
A boar and a sow were also intended for him, but as he was not then to
be found they were given to another chief, or head man, and his family,
who promised to take care of them. These people had made some advance
out of the purely savage state. Their dwellings were circular, very
thickly thatched, something like a beehive, and very close and warm.
Many had two fireplaces, and some had two storeys, spread with mats and
grass. As the entrance was very small, and there was no other outlet
for the smoke, the heat was intolerable. It was strange that natives of
so hot a climate should delight in all the extra heat they could get.
Outside the huts were little pyramids, five together. On the point of
the pyramids the clay pots in which they cooked their food were placed,
not upright, but on the sides, the fire being lighted beneath. The
canoes of the islanders were large, but rude and clumsy in build; and
they constructed double canoes formed of the trunks of two trees
fastened together, much in the fashion of the other double canoes of the
Pacific. They had sometimes one, and sometimes two, lateen sails,
composed of pieces of matting, the ropes being made of the coarse
filaments of the plantain tree. When they could not