The surf, which breaks on the coast round the bay, extends to the distance of about one hundred and fifty yards from the shore, within which space the surges of the sea, accumulating from the shallowness of the water, are dashed against the beach with prodigious violence. Whenever, from stormy weather, or any extraordinary swell at sea, the impetuosity of the surf is increased to its utmost height, they choose that time for this amusement, which is performed in the following manner: Twenty or thirty of the natives, taking each a long narrow board, rounded at the ends, set out together from the shore. The first wave they meet they plunge under, and, suffering it to roll over them, rise again beyond it, and make the best of their way, by swimming out into the sea. The second wave is encountered in the same manner with the first; the great difficulty consisting in seizing the proper moment of diving under it, which, if missed, the person is caught by the surf, and driven back again with great violence; and all his dexterity is then required to prevent himself from being dashed against the rocks. As soon as they have gained, by these repeated efforts, the smooth water beyond the surf, they lay themselves at length on their board, and prepare themselves for their return. As the surf consists of a number of waves, of which every third is remarked to be always much larger than the others, and to flow higher on the shore, the rest breaking in the intermediate space, their first object is to place themselves on the summit of the largest surge, by which they are driven along with amazing rapidity toward the shore. If, by mistake, they should place themselves on one of the smaller waves, which breaks before they reach the land, or should not be able to keep their plank in a proper direction on the top of the swell, they are left exposed to the fury of the next, and, to avoid it, are obliged again to dive, and regain the place from which they set out. Those who succeed in their object of reaching the shore, have still the greatest danger to encounter. The coast being guarded by a chain of rocks, with here and there a small opening between them, they are obliged to steer their board through one of these, or, in case of failure, to quit it before they reach the rocks, and, plunging under the wave, make the best of their way back again. This is reckoned very disgraceful, and is also attended with the loss of the board, which I have often seen, with great terror, dashed to pieces, at the very moment the islander quitted it. The boldness and address with which we saw them perform these difficult and dangerous manoeuvres, were altogether astonishing, and is scarcely to be credited.[11]
[11] An amusement somewhat similar to this, at Otaheite, has been elsewhere described.
An accident, of which I was a near spectator, shews at how early a period they are so far familiarized to the water, as both to lose all fears of it, and to set its dangers at defiance. A canoe being overset, in which was a woman with her children, one of them an infant, who, I am convinced, was not more than four years old, seemed highly delighted with what had happened, swimming about at its ease, and playing a hundred tricks, till the canoe was put to rights again.
Besides the amusements I have already mentioned, the young children have one, which was much played at, and shewed no small degree of dexterity. They take a short stick, with a peg sharpened at both ends, running through one extremity of it, and extending about an inch on each side; and throwing up a ball, made of green leaves, moulded together, and secured with twine, they catch it on the point of the peg; and immediately throwing it up again from the peg, they turn the stick round, and thus keep catching it on each peg alternately, without missing it, for a considerable time. They are not less expert at another game of the same nature, tossing up in the air, and catching, in their turns, a number of these balls; so that we frequently saw little children thus keep in motion five at a time. With this latter play the young people likewise divert themselves at the Friendly Islands.
The great resemblance which prevails in the mode of agriculture and navigation, amongst all the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands, leaves me very little to add on those heads. Captain Cook has already described the figure of the canoes we saw at Atooi. Those of the other islands were precisely the same; and the largest we saw was a double canoe, belonging to Terreeoboo, which measured seventy feet in length, three and a half in depth, and twelve in breadth; and each was hollowed out of one tree.
The progress they have made in sculpture, their skill in painting cloth, and their manufacturing of mats, have been all particularly described. The most curious specimens of the former, which we saw during our second visit, are the bowls in which the chiefs drink ava. These are usually about eight or ten inches in diameter, perfectly round, and beautifully polished. They are supported by three, and sometimes four small human figures, in various attitudes. Some of them rest on the hands of their supporters, extended over the head; others on the head and hands; and some on the shoulders. The figures, I am told, are accurately proportioned, and neatly finished, and even the anatomy of the muscles, in supporting the weight, well expressed.
Their cloth is made of the same materials, and in the same manner, as at the Friendly and Society Islands. That which is designed to be painted, is of a thick and strong texture, several folds being beat and incorporated together; after which it is cut in breadths, about two or three feet wide, and is painted in a variety of patterns, with a comprehensiveness and regularity of design that bespeaks infinite taste and fancy. The exactness with which the most intricate patterns are continued is the more surprising, when we consider that they have no stamps, and that the whole is done by the eye, with pieces of bamboo-cane dipped in paint; the hand being supported by another piece of the cane, in the manner practised by our painters. Their colours are extracted from the same berries, and other vegetable substances, as at Otaheite, which have been already described by former voyagers.
The business of painting belongs entirely to the women, and is called kipparee; and it is remarkable that they always gave the same name to our writing. The young women would often take the pen out of our hands, and shew us that they knew the use of it as well as we did; at the same time telling us that our pens were not so good as theirs. They looked upon a sheet of written paper as a piece of cloth striped after the fashion of our country; and it was not without the utmost difficulty that we could make them understand that our figures had a meaning in them which theirs had not.
Their mats are made of the leaves of the pandanus; and, as well as their cloths, are beautifully worked in a variety of patterns, and stained of different colours. Some have a ground of pale green, spotted with squares or rhomboids of red; others are of a straw colour, spotted with green; and others are worked with beautiful stripes, either in straight or waving lines of red and brown. In this article of manufacture, whether we regard the strength, fineness, or beauty, they certainly excel the whole world.
Their fishing-hooks are made of mother-of-pearl, bone, or wood, pointed and barbed with small bones or tortoise-shell. They are of various sizes and forms, but the most common are about two or three inches long, and made in the shape of a small fish, which serves as a bait, having a bunch of feathers tied to the head or tail. Those with which they fish for sharks are of a very large size, being generally six or eight inches long. Considering the materials of which these hooks were made, their strength and neatness are really astonishing; and, in fact, we found them, upon trial, much superior to our own.