The exact resemblance between this habit, and the cloak and helmet formerly worn by the Spaniards, was too striking not to excite our curiosity to enquire, whether there were any probable grounds for supposing it to have been borrowed from them. After exerting every means in our power of obtaining information on this subject, we found that they had no immediate knowledge of any other nation whatever, nor any tradition remaining among them of these islands having been ever visited before by such ships as ours. But, notwithstanding the result of these enquiries, the uncommon form of this habit appears to me a sufficient proof of its European origin, especially when added to another circumstance, that it is a singular deviation from the general resemblance in dress, which prevails amongst all the branches of this tribe, dispersed through the South Sea. We were driven indeed, by this conclusion, to a supposition of the shipwreck of some Buccaneer, or Spanish ship, in the neighbourhood of these islands. But when it is recollected, that the course of the Spanish trade from Acapulco to the Manillas is but a few degrees to the southward of the Sandwich Islands in their passage out, and to the northward on their return, this supposition will not appear in the least improbable.[9] The common dress of the women bears a close resemblance to that of the men. They wrap round the waist a piece of cloth, that reaches half way down the thighs; and sometimes in the cool of the evening they appeared with loose pieces of fine cloth, thrown over their shoulders, like the women of Otaheite. The _pau_ is another dress very frequently worn by the younger part of the sex. It is made of the thinnest and finest sort of cloth, wrapt several times round the waist, and descending to the leg, so as to have exactly the appearance of a full short petticoat. The hair is cut short behind, and turned up before, as is the fashion among the Otaheiteans and New Zealanders; all of whom differ, in this respect, from the women of the Friendly Islands, who wear their hair long. We saw, indeed, one woman in Karakakooa Bay, Whose hair was arranged in a very singular manner; it was turned up behind, and brought over the forehead, and then doubled back, so as to form a sort of a shade to the face, like a small bonnet.