skin itself scarce 1/16 part of an inch in thickness. Boring the holes throug[h] which their sewing is to pass seems to be their greatest dificulty. Their tools are made of the bones of men, generaly the thin bone of the upper arm; these they grind very sharp and fix to a handle of wood, making the instrument serve the purpose of a gouge by striking it with a mallet made of a hard black wood, and with them would do as much work as with Iron tools was it not that the brittle Edge of the tool is very liable to be broke.

When they have prepard their planks &c. the keel is layd on blocks and the whole Canoe put together much in the same manner as we do a ship, the sides being supported by stantions and all the seams wedg'd together before the last sewing is put on, so that they become tolerably tight considering that they are without calking.

With these boats they venture themselves out of sight of land; we saw several of them at Otahite which had come from Ulhietea and Tupia has told us that they go voyages of twenty days, whether true or false I do not affirm. They keep them very carefully under such boathouses as are describd p. , one of which we measurd today 60 yards by 11.

Voyaging Accounts