There Is As Great A Variety Of Trees And
Plants Here, As At Any Island We Touched At, Where Our Botanists Had Time
To Examine.
I believe these people live chiefly on the produce of the land,
and that the sea contributes but little to their subsistence.
Whether this
arises from the coast not abounding with fish, or from their being bad
fishermen, I know not; both causes perhaps concur. I never saw any sort of
fishing-tackle amongst them, nor any one out fishing, except on the shoals,
or along the shores of the harbour, where they would watch to strike with a
dart such fish as came within their reach; and in this they were expert.
They seemed much to admire our catching fish with the seine; and, I
believe, were not well pleased with it at last. I doubt not, they have
other methods of catching fish besides striking them.[2]
We understood that the little isle of Immer was chiefly inhabited by
fishermen, and that the canoes we frequently saw pass, to and from that
isle and the east point of the harbour, were fishing canoes. These canoes
were of unequal sizes, some thirty feet long, two broad, and three deep;
and they are composed of several pieces of wood clumsily sewed together
with bandages. The joints are covered on the outside by a thin batten
champered off at the edges, over which the bandages pass. They are
navigated either by paddles or sails. The sail is lateen, extended to a
yard and boom, and hoisted to a short mast. Some of the large canoes have
two sails, and all of them outriggers.
At first we thought the people of this island, as well as those of
Erromango, were a race between the natives of the Friendly Islands and
those of Mallicollo; but a little acquaintance with them convinced us that
they had little or no affinity to either, except it be in their hair, which
is much like what the people of the latter island have. The general colours
of it are black and brown, growing to a tolerable length, and very crisp
and curly. They separate it into small locks, which they woold or cue round
with the rind of a slender plant, down to about an inch of the ends; and,
as the hair grows, the woolding is continued. Each of these cues or locks
is somewhat thicker than common whipcord; and they look like a parcel of
small strings hanging down from the crown of their heads. Their beards,
which are strong and bushy, are generally short. The women do not wear
their hair so, but cropped; nor do the boys, till they approach manhood.
Some few men, women, and children, were seen, who had hair like ours; but
it was obvious that these were of another nation; and, I think, we
understood they came from Erronan. It is to this island they ascribe one of
the two languages which they speak, and which is nearly, if not exactly,
the same as that spoken in the Friendly Islands.
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