Joseph Banks

“ No countrey can boast such delightfull walks as this, the whole plains where the people live are coverd with groves of Breadfruit and cocoa nut trees without underwood; these are intersected in all directions by the paths which go from one house to the other, so the whole countrey is a shade than which nothing can be more gratefull in a climate where the sun has so powerfull an influence. They are built without walls so that the air coold by the shade of the trees has free access in whatever direction it happens to blow. ”

“ If our preists have excelld theirs in persuading us that the Sexes can not come lawfully together without having bought their benediction, they have done it by intermingling it so far with religion that the fear of punishment from above secures their power over us ”

“ It is done at least always by the old women who make a kind of superstitious mystery of it. No one except the people employd by them is allowd to come even into that part of the house where it is; I myself spoild a large heap of it only by inadvertenly touching some leaves that lay upon it as I walkd by the outside of the house where it was. ”

“ The dress of the men differs but little from this; their bodys are rather more bare, and instead of the petticoat they have a peice of Cloth passed between their leggs and round their waists (Maro) which keeps up the strictest rules of decency, and at the same time gives them rather more liberty to use their limbs than the womens dress will allow. Thus much of the richer people, the poorer sort have only a small allowance of cloth given them from the tribes or families to which they belong, and must use that to the best advantage. ”

“ They are certainly as cleanly a people as any under the sun except in their lousyness, every one of them wash their whole bodies in the running water as soon as they rise in the morn, at noon, and before they sleep at night; and if they have not such water near their houses as often happens, they will go a good way to it; as for their lice had they the means only they would certainly be as free from them as any inhabitants of so warm a climate could be. ”

“ The cloth itself both thick and thin resembles most the finest cottons in softness especialy in which article it even exceeds them. Its tenderness (for it tears by the smallest accident) makes it very impossible that it can ever be usd in Europe; indeed it is properly adapted to a hot climate; I usd it to sleep in very often in the Islands and always found it far cooler than any English cloth, and that it much prevented perspiration or else, by drying it up immediately, the disagreable sensation of it. ”

“ When he has eat his bread fruit and fish he begins with his plantains, one of which makes no more than a mouthful if they are as big as black puddings; if he has apples a shell is nescessary to peel them, one is pickd of the ground where they are always plenty and tossd to him, with this he scrapes or cutts off the skin rather awkwardly as he wastes almost half the apple in doing it. ”

“ Tho I dare not assert that these people, to whoom the art of writing and consequently of Recording Laws etc. is totaly unknown, live under a regular form of Goverment, Yet the Subordination which takes place among them very much resembles the early state of the feudal laws by which our Ancestors were so long Governd, a System evidently formd to secure the Licentious Liberty of a few while the Greater part of the Society are unalterably immersd in the most abject Slavery. ”

“ Their stone axes are made of a black stone not very hard but tolerably tough; they are of different sizes, some that are intended for felling weigh 3 or 4 Pounds, others which are usd only for carving not so many ounces. Whatever these tools want in goodness is made up by the industry of the people who use them. Felling a tree is their greatest labour, a large one requires many hands to assist and some days before it can be finishd, but when once it is down they manage it with far greater dexterity than is credible to an Europaean. ”

“ The Sea about them in the neighbourhood of which they always live supplys them with vast variety of fish better than what is generaly met with between the tropicks, but these they get not without some trouble; every one desires to have them and there is not enough for all, tho while we remaind in these seas we saw above species more perhaps than our own Island can boast of. I speak now only of what is more properly calld Fish ”

“ The men wear feathers often the tails of tropick birds stuck upright in their hair, they have also a kind of wiggs made upon one string of the hair of men, dogs, or Cocoa nut strings, which they tie under their hair upon the back of their heads; I have seen them also wear whimsical garlands made of a variety of flowers stuck into a peice of the rind of plaintain, or of scarlet pease stuck upon a peice of wood with gum, but these are not common. ”

“ Their candles are then lighted which are made of the kernel of a nut abounding much in oil; many of these are stuck upon a skewer of wood one below the other and give a very tolerable light which they often keep burning an hour after dark and if they have many strangers in the house it is sometimes kept up all night--a kind of guard maybe upon the chastity of the ladies who upon such occasions are very shy of receiving any mark of regard from their lovers. ”

“ In every expedient for taking fish they are vastly ingenious. Their Seines, netts for fish to mesh themselves in etc. are exactly like ours: they strike fish with harpoons made of Cane and pointed with hard wood in a more dextrous manner than we can do with ours that are headed with Iron, for we who fasten lines to ours need only lodge them in the fish to secure it, while they on the other hand throwing theirs quite from them must either mortaly wound the fish or loose him. ”

“ The latent qualities of vegetables have already furnishd our most valuable dyes; no one from an inspection of the Plants could guess that any coulour was hid under the herbs of Indigo, Woad, Dyers weed, or indeed the most of the Plants whose leaves are usd in dying, and yet those latent qualifications have when discoverd produc'd Colours without which our dyers could hardly go on with their Trades. ”

“ Besides these things they make netts for fishing in the same manner as we do, Ropes of about an inch, and lines, of the Poorou; threads with which they sew together their canoes, and also belts, of the fibres of the Cocoa nut, platted either round or flat very neatly; all their twisting work they do upon their thighs in a manner very dificult to describe and indeed unnecessary, as no European can want to learn how to do an operation which his instruments will do for him so much faster than it possibly can be done by hand. ”

“ This Universe and its marvelous parts must strike the most stupid with a desire of knowing from whence themselves and it were producd. Their Preists however have not Ideas sufficiently enlarg'd to adopt that of Creation: that this world should have been originaly created from nothing far surpasses their comprehension. ”

“ The women (for the men seem to think lamentations below their dignity) assemble Led on by the nearest relation, who walking up to the door of the House swimming almost in tears strikes a sharks tooth several times into the crown of her head, on which a large effusion of blood flows, which is carefully caught in their linnen and thrown under the Bier. ”

“ I will describe the manner in which one of their principal people is servd; they commonly eat alone unless some stranger makes a second in their mess.
He setts commonly under the shade of the next tree or on the shady side of the house; a large quantity of leaves either of Bread fruit or Banana are neatly spread before him which serves instead of a table cloth, a basket is then set by him which contains his provisions and two cocoa nut shells, one full of fresh water the other of salt. ”

“ Vegetables are their cheif food and of these they eat a large quantity. Cookery seems to have been little studied here: they have only two methods of applying fire, broiling, or baking as we calld it which is done thus. A hole is dug in depth and size according to what is to be prepard seldom exceeding a foot in depth, in this a heap is made of wood and stones alternately laid; fire is then put to it which by the time it has consumd the wood has heated the stones sufficiently just enough to discolour any thing which touches them. ”

“ This custom as indeed it is natural to suppose Owes as we were told its existence cheifly to the men. A Woman howsoever fond she may be of the name of Arreoy and the liberty attending it before she conceives, generaly desires much to forfeit that title for the preservation of her child: in this she has not the smallest influence; if she cannot find a man who will own it she must of course destroy it ”

“ Heaven they describe as a place of Great happines and hell is only a place enjoying less of the luxuries of life; to this they say that the souls of the interior people go after death and those of the cheifs and rich men to the other. ”

“ He generaly gives a fish or part of one to some one of his dependants, many of whoom set round him, and then takes up a very small peice of that that he has broke into the salt water in the ends of all the fingers of one hand and sucks it into his mouth to get with it as much salt water as possible, every now and then taking a small sup of it either out of the palm of his hand or the cocoa nut shell. ”

“ After their meals and in the heat of the day they often sleep, middle ag'd people especialy, the better sort of whoom seem to spend most of their time in eating or sleeping. The young boys and girls are uncommonly lively and active and the old people generaly more so than the middle ag'd ones, which perhaps is owing to the excessive venery which the heat of the climate and their dissolute manners tempt them to. ”

“ In their carpenters, joiners and stone cutters work etc. they are almost as little obligd to the use of tools as in making these hooks: an axe of Stone in the shape of an adze, a chisel or gouge made of a human bone, a file or rasp of Coral, skin of Sting rays, and coral sand to polish with, are a sufficient set of tools for building a house and furnishing it with boats, as well as for quarrying and squaring stones for the pavement of any thing which may require it in the neighbourhood. ”