their floors are covered with a large quantity of dried grass, over
which they spread mats to sit and sleep upon. At one end stands a kind
of bench about three feet high, on which their household utensils are
placed. The catalogue is not long. It consists of gourd-shells, which
they convert into vessels that serve as bottles to hold water, and as
baskets to contain their victuals, and other things with covers of
the same; and of a few wooden bowls and trenchers of different sizes.
Judging from what we saw growing, and from what was brought to market,
there can be no doubt, that the greatest part of their vegetable
food consists of sweet potatoes, _taro_, and plantains; and that
bread-fruit and yams are rather to be esteemed rarities. Of animal
food they can be in no want; as they have abundance of hogs, which run
without restraint about the houses; and if they eat dogs, which is not
improbable, their stock of these seemed to be very considerable. The
great number of fishing-hooks found amongst them, shewed that they
derive no inconsiderable supply of animal food from the sea. But it
should seem, from their practice of salting fish, that the openness of
their coast often interrupts the business of catching them; as it
may be naturally supposed, that no set of people would ever think of
preserving quantities of food artificially, if they could depend
upon a daily regular supply of it in its fresh state. This sort of
reasoning, however, will not account for their custom of salting their
pork, as well as their fish, which are preserved in gourd-shells. The
salt, of which they use a great quantity for this purpose, is of a red
colour, not very coarse, and seems to be much the same with what our
stragglers found at Christmas Island. It has its colour doubtless from
a mixture of the mud at the bottom of the part where it is formed; for
some of it that had adhered in lumps, was of a sufficient whiteness
and purity.

They bake their vegetable food with heated stones, as at the southern
islands; and from the vast quantity, which we saw dressed at one time,
we suspected that the whole village, or, at least, a considerable
number of people joined in the use of a common oven. We did not see
them dress any animal food at this island; but Mr Gore's party, as
already mentioned, had an opportunity of satisfying themselves, that
it was dressed at Oneeheow in the same sort of ovens, which leaves no
doubt of this being also the practice i