As soon as the ship's way was stopped, the islanders poured in over the rail in vast numbers, and a brisk traffic was carried on for cocoanut, mats, hats, shells, etc. Tobacco was the precious metal and root of all evil with this people. Iron they seemed to care very little for, unless an opportunity offered to steal it, but "tabahky" was the very goal of their desires, and for this they would barter soul and body. Articles of clothing were in no request; indeed they offered some for sale for bits of tobacco, having probably stolen them from previous visitors. The costumes of these natives are exceedingly light and airy, the men having absolutely no covering beyond what Nature has provided; while the females were restricted to a single garment not unlike the Highland philibeg, the material being grass or seaweed. More canoes kept paddling up alongside, and attaching themselves to the offside of the first comers, till the ship was surrounded with them several tiers deep, extending to a considerable distance; for these crafts occupy much space in beam, not so much from the size of the boat itself, as of the bulky "outrigger" built out one side to balance her when carrying sail. These islands produce no trees suitable for making "dug-outs" of any considerable size, and the canoes are built of little pieces of wood, hundreds of pieces in a single craft, holes being made near the edges, and the pieces lashed together with innumerable little "seizings," a sort of mortar or white cement is plastered on to fill up the numerous joints, and the still more numerous little holes for the lashings. This only partially answers the purpose; for though the boats are not deficient in the qualities of speed and buoyancy, they are never tight, and one man is kept almost constantly baling. The lashings, as well as all their ropes, some of considerable size, are ingeniously twisted from the fibrous outside or husk of the cocoanut. Two white men came on board, one of whom had been here several years, and had become quite domesticated. He seemed to have considerable influence among the natives, and doubtless was as arrant a savage as any of them when on shore. This man told me that the work of building canoes was constantly going on at their naval dockyard, and that he could hardly perceive the progress made from day to day; several months being consumed in finishing one of them. And no more work is done to them than is absolutely necessary to fit them for service, for the people evince none of the artistic skill and taste in ornamenting their vessels, for which many other of the Polynesian tribes are noted.