then wept, and at
last burst into loud lamentations, earnestly imploring the operator to
desist. He was however inexorable; and when she began to struggle, she
was held down by two women, who sometimes soothed and sometimes chid
her, and now and then, when she was most unruly, gave her a smart blow.
Mr. Banks stayed in the neighbouring house an hour, and the operation
was not over when he went away.'

The sufferings of this young lady did not however deter the late
President of the Royal Society from undergoing the operation on his own
person.

The skill and labour which the Otaheitans bestow on their large double
boats is not less wonderful than their stone morais, from the felling of
the tree and splitting it into plank, to the minutest carved ornaments
that decorate the head and the stern. The whole operation is performed
without the use of any metallic instrument. 'To fabricate one of their
principal vessels with their tools is,' says Cook, 'as great a work as
to build a British man of war with ours.' The fighting boats are
sometimes more than seventy feet long, but not above three broad; but
they are fastened in pairs, side by side, at the distance of about three
feet; the head and stern rise in a semi-circular form, the latter to the
height of seventeen or eighteen feet. To build these boats, and the
smaller kinds of canoes;--to build their houses, and finish the slight
furniture they contain;--to fell, cleave, carve, and polish timber for
various purposes;--and, in short, for every conversion of wood--the
tools they make use of are the following: an adze of stone; a chisel or
gouge of bone, generally that of a man's arm between the wrist and
elbow; a rasp of coral; and the skin of a sting-ray, with coral sand as
a file or polisher.

The persons of the Otaheitan men are in general tall, strong,
well-limbed and finely shaped; equal in size to the largest of
Europeans. The women of superior rank are also above the middle stature
of Europeans, but the inferior class are rather below it. The complexion
of the former class is that which we call a brunette, and the skin is
most delicately smooth and soft. The shape of the face is comely, the
cheek bones are not high, neither are the eyes hollow, nor the brow
prominent; the nose is a little, but not much, flattened; but their
eyes, and more particularly those of the women, are full of expression,
sometimes sparkling with fire, and sometimes melting with softness;
th