ylindrical raft, between two and
three feet in diameter. They next bound the whole closely together by
lashings, and filled up all its inequalities with capstan-bars,
handspikes, and other small spars, so as to make it a compact, smooth,
and uniform cylinder from end to end. Nothing could be more dexterous
or seaman-like than the style in which these fellows swam about and
passed the lashings; in fact, they appeared to be as much at home in
the water as our sailors were in the boats or in the rigging.

A stout seven-inch hawser was now sent down by the buoy-rope, and the
running clinch or noose formed on its end, placed over the fluke of
the anchor in the usual way. A couple of round turns were then taken
with the hawser at the middle part of the cylindrical raft, after it
had been drawn up as tight as possible from the anchor. A number of
slew-ropes, I think about sixty or seventy in all, were next passed
round the cylinder several times, in the opposite direction to the
round turns taken with the hawser.

Upwards of a hundred of the natives now mounted the raft, and, after
dividing themselves into pairs, and taking hold of the slew-ropes in
their hands, pulled them up as tight as they could. By this effort
they caused the cylinder to turn round till its further revolutions
were stopped by the increasing tightness of the hawser, which was
wound on the cylinder as fast as the slew-ropes were wound off it.
When all the ropes had been drawn equally tight, and the whole party
of men had been ranged along the top in an erect posture, with their
faces all turned one way, a signal was given by one of the principal
natives. At this moment the men, one and all, still grasping their
respective slew-ropes firmly in their hands, and without bending a
joint in their whole bodies, fell simultaneously on their backs, flat
on the water! The effect of this sudden movement was to turn the
cylinder a full quadrant, or one quarter of a revolution. This, of
course, brought a considerable strain on the hawser fixed to the
anchor. On a second signal being given, every alternate pair of men
gradually crept up the spars by means of their slew-ropes, till
one-half of the number stood once more along the top of the cylinder,
while the other half of the party still lay flat on the water, and by
their weight prevented the cylinder rolling back again.

When the next signal was given, those natives who had regained their
original position on the