A General History & Collection of Voyages and Travels ... - Nauticus

have expected. Their instruments of war were clubs, spears, and stones. The vessels were ranged closealong-side of each other with their heads ashore, and their stern to the sea; the admiral's vessel being nearlyin the centre. Besides the vessels of war, there were an hundred and seventy sail of smaller double canoes,all with a little house upon them, and rigged with mast and sail, which the war canoes had not. These, wejudged, were designed for transports, victuallers, &c.; for in the war-canoes was no sort of provisionswhatever. In these three hundred and thirty vessels, I guessed there were no less than seven thousand sevenhundred and sixty men; a number which appears incredible, especially as we were told they all belonged tothe districts of Attahourou and Ahopatea. In this computation I allow to each war canoe forty men, troopsand rowers, and to each of the small canoes eight. Most of the gentlemen who were with me, thought thenumber of men belonging to the war canoes exceeded this. It is certain that the most of them were fitted torow with more paddles than I have allowed them men; but, at this time, I think they were not complete.Tupia informed us, when I was first here, that the whole island raised only between six and seven thousandmen; but we now saw two districts only raise that number; so that he must have taken his account fromsome old establishment; or else he only meant Tatatous, that is warriors, or men trained from their infancyto arms, and did not include the rowers, and those necessary to navigate the other vessels. I should think heonly spoke of this number as the standing troops or militia of the island, and not their whole force. Thispoint I shall leave to be discussed in another place, and return to the subject.[6][6] So much curious information is given in the following passage, that, long as it is, there are fewreaders, it is believed, who would willingly dispense with it. "All our former ideas of the power andaffluence of this island were so greatly surpassed by this magnificent scene, that we were perfectlyleft in admiration. We counted no less than one hundred and fifty-nine war-canoes, from fifty toninety feet long betwixt stem and stern. All these were double, that is, two joined together, side byside, by fifteen or eighteen strong transverse timbers, which sometimes projected a great waybeyond both the hulls, being from twelve to four-and-twenty feet in length, and about three feet anda half asunder. When they are so long, they make a platform fifty, sixty, or seventy feet in length. Onthe outside of each canoe there are, in that case, two or three longitudinal spars, and between the twoconnected canoes, one spar is fixed to the transverse beams. The heads and sterns were raisedseveral feet out of the water, particularly the latter, which stood up like long beaks, sometimes neartwenty feet high, and were cut into various shapes; a white piece of cloth was commonly fixedbetween the two beaks of each double canoe, in lieu of an ensign, and the wind swelled it out like asail. Some had likewise a striped cloth, with various red chequers, which were the marks of thedivisions under different commanders. At the head there was a tall pillar of carved-work, on the topof which stood the figure of a man, or rather of an urchin, whose face was commonly shaded by aboard like a bonnet, and sometimes painted red with ochre. These pillars were generally coveredwith branches of black feathers, and long streamers of feathers hung from them. The gunwale of thecanoes was commonly two or three feet above the water, but not always formed in the same manner;for some had flat bottoms, and sides nearly perpendicular upon them, whilst others were bow- sided,with a sharp keel. A fighting stage was erected towards the head of the boat, and rested on pillarsfrom four to six feet high, generally ornamented with carving. This stage extended beyond the wholebreadth of the double canoe, and was from twenty to twenty-four feet long, and about eight or tenfeet wide. The rowers sat in the canoe, or under the fighting-stage on the platform, which consistedof the transverse beams and longitudinal spars; so that wherever these crossed, there was room forone man in the compartment. The warriors were stationed on the fighting-stage to the number offifteen or twenty. Their dress was the most singular, and at the same time the most shewy, in thewhole fleet. They had three large and ample pieces of cloth with a hole in the middle, put one aboveanother. The undermost and largest was white, the next red, and the uppermost and shortest brown.Their targets or breast-plates were made of wicker- work, covered with feathers and sharks' teeth,and hardly any of the warriors were without them. On the contrary, those who wore helmets werefew in number. These helmets were of an enormous size, being near five feet high. They consisted ofa long cylindrical basket of wicker- work, of which the foremost half was hid by a semi-cylinder of acloser texture, which became broader towards the top, and there separated from the basket, so as to