Some Had Likewise A Striped Cloth, With Various Red Chequers, Which Were The Marks Of The Divisions Under Different Commanders.

At the head there was a tall pillar of carved-work, on the top of which stood the figure of a man, or rather of an urchin, whose face was commonly shaded by a board like a bonnet, and sometimes painted red with ochre.

These pillars were generally covered with branches of black feathers, and long streamers of feathers hung from them. The gunwale of the canoes was commonly two or three feet above the water, but not always formed in the same manner; for some had flat bottoms, and sides nearly perpendicular upon them, whilst others were bow- sided, with a sharp keel. A fighting stage was erected towards the head of the boat, and rested on pillars from four to six feet high, generally ornamented with carving. This stage extended beyond the whole breadth of the double canoe, and was from twenty to twenty-four feet long, and about eight or ten feet wide. The rowers sat in the canoe, or under the fighting-stage on the platform, which consisted of the transverse beams and longitudinal spars; so that wherever these crossed, there was room for one man in the compartment. The warriors were stationed on the fighting-stage to the number of fifteen or twenty. Their dress was the most singular, and at the same time the most shewy, in the whole fleet. They had three large and ample pieces of cloth with a hole in the middle, put one above another. The undermost and largest was white, the next red, and the uppermost and shortest brown. Their targets or breast-plates were made of wicker- work, covered with feathers and sharks' teeth, and hardly any of the warriors were without them. On the contrary, those who wore helmets were few in number. These helmets were of an enormous size, being near five feet high. They consisted of a long cylindrical basket of wicker- work, of which the foremost half was hid by a semi-cylinder of a closer texture, which became broader towards the top, and there separated from the basket, so as to come forwards in a curve. This frontlet, of the length of four feet, was closely covered with the glossy bluish green feathers of a sort of pigeon, and with an elegant border of white plumes. A prodigious number of the long tail feathers of tropic birds diverged from its edges, in a radiant line, resembling that glory of light with which our painters commonly ornament the heads of angels and saints. A large turban of cloth was required for this huge unwieldy machine to rest upon; but as it is intended merely to strike the beholder with admiration, and can be of no service, the warriors soon took it off, and placed it on the platform near them. The principal commanders were moreover distinguished by long round tails, made of green and yellow feathers, which hung down on the back, and put us in mind of the Turkish bashaws.

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