The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World, Vol. III. Being the First of the Second VoyageCook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World, Vol. III. Being the First of the Second Voyage
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
We saw no other domestic animals amongst them, but hogs and fowls. The
former are of the same sort as at the other isles in this sea; but the
latter are far superior, being as large as any we have in Europe, and
their flesh equally good, if not better. We saw no dogs, and believe
they have none, as they were exceedingly desirous of those we had on
board. My friend Attago was complimented with a dog and a bitch, the one
from New Zealand, the other from Ulietea. The name of a dog with them is
_kooree_ or _gooree_, the same as at New Zealand, which shews that they
are not wholly strangers to them. We saw no rats in these isles, nor any
other wild quadrupeds, except small lizards. The land birds are pigeons,
turtle-doves, parrots, parroquets, owls, bald couts with a blue plumage,
a variety of small birds, and large bats in abundance. The produce of
the sea we know but little of; it is reasonable to suppose that the same
sorts of fish are found here as at the other isles. Their fishing
instruments are the same; that is, hooks made of mother of pearl, gigs
with two, three, or more prongs, and nets made of a very fine thread,
with the meshes wrought exactly like ours. But nothing can be a more
demonstrative evidence of their ingenuity than the construction and make
of their canoes, which, in point of neatness and workmanship, exceed
every thing of this kind we saw in this sea. They are built of several
pieces sewed together with bandage, in so neat a manner, that on the
outside it is difficult to see the joints. All the fastenings are on the
inside, and pass through kants or ridges, which are wrought on the edges
and ends of the several boards which compose the vessel, for that
purpose. They are of two kinds, viz. double and single. The single ones
are from twenty to thirty feet long, and about twenty or twenty-two
inches broad in the middle; the stern terminates in a point, and the
head something like the point of a wedge. At each end is a kind of deck,
for about one third part of the whole length, and open in the middle. In
some the middle of the deck is decorated with a row of white shells,
stuck on little pegs wrought out of the same piece which composes it.
These single canoes have all out-riggers, and are sometimes navigated
with sails, but more generally with paddles, the blades of which are
short, and broadest in the middle. The two vessels which compose the
double canoe are each about sixty or seventy feet long, and four or five
broad in the middle; and each end terminates nearly in a point; so that
the body or hull differs a little in construction from the single canoe;
but is put together exactly in the same manner; these having a rising in
the middle round the open part, in the form of a long trough, which is
made of boards, closely fitted together, and well secured to the body of
the vessel. Two such vessels are fastened to, and parallel to each
other, about six or seven feet asunder, by strong cross beams, secured
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