Besides these things they make netts for fishing in the same manner as we do, Ropes of about an inch, and lines, of the Poorou; threads with which they sew together their canoes, and also belts, of the fibres of the Cocoa nut, platted either round or flat very neatly; all their twisting work they do upon their thighs in a manner very dificult to describe and indeed unnecessary, as no European can want to learn how to do an operation which his instruments will do for him so much faster than it possibly can be done by hand. But of all the strings that they make none are so excellent as the fishing lines &c. which are made of the bark of a kind of frutescent nettle calld by them Erowa (Urtica argentea) which grows in the mountains and is consequently rather scarce; of this they make the lines which are employd to take the briskest and most active fish as bonetos, Albecores &c. As I never made experiments with it I can only ascertain its strengh by saying that it was infinitely stronger than silk lines which I had on board made by the best fishing shops in London, tho not so thick by almost half.

Voyaging Accounts