In their carpenters, joiners and stone cutters work &c. they are almost as little obligd to the use of tools as in making these hooks: an axe of Stone in the shape of an adze, a chisel or gouge made of a human bone, a file or rasp of Coral, skin of Sting rays, and coral sand to polish with, are a sufficient set of tools for building a house and furnishing it with boats, as well as for quarrying and squaring stones for the pavement of any thing which may require it in the neighbourhood. Their stone axes are made of a black stone not very hard but tolerably tough; they are of different sizes, some that are intended for felling weigh 3 or 4 Pounds, others which are usd only for carving not so many ounces. Whatever these tools want in goodness is made up by the industry of the people who use them. Felling a tree is their greatest labour, a large one requires many hands to assist and some days before it can be finishd, but when once it is down they manage it with far greater dexterity than is credible to an Europaean. If it is to be made into boar

Voyaging Accounts