King Georges Island
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in the doing of which they often beat holes in it or one place thiner than another but this is easy repair'd by pasting on small bits and this they do in such a manner that the cloth is not ^ in the least injured. the finest sort when bleached is very white and coms nearest to fine Cotton. Thick cloth especialy fine is made by pasting two or more thickness's of thin ^ cloth made for that purpose together. Course thick cloth and ordinary thin cloth is made of the bark of the bread fruit tree and I think I have been told that it is sometimes made from the bark of other trees. The making of Cloth is wholy the work of the women in which all ranks are employ'd. their Common Colours are red, brow[n] and yellow with which they dye some peices just as their fancy leads them; besides Cloth they make several different sorts of matting both better and finer than any we have in Europe, the stuff they make it on is the produce of the palm tree — *
I have before mentioned that this Island is divided into ^ two districts or Kingdoms ^ which are frequently at war with each other as happend about twelve Months ago and each of these is again divided into smaller districts, Whennuas as they Call them, over each of the Kingdoms is an Eare dehi or head whome we call a King and in the Whannuas are Eares or Chiefs - The Kings power seems to be but very little, he may be reverenced as a father but he his neither fear'd nor respected as a Monarch and the same may be said of the other Chiefs: however they have a preeminence over the rest of the people who pay them a kind of a volantry ^ obedience - Upon the whole these' people seem to injoy liberty in its fullest extend
* [Additional text written in margin of Ms page 161]
an every man seems to be the sole judge of his own actions and to know no punishment ^andbut death and this perhaps is never inflicted but upon a publick enimy - There are three Ranks of Men and women, first the Eares or Chiefs, second the Manahoona's or midling sort and lastly the Toutou's which comprehends all the lower class and are by far the most numerous, these seem to live in some sort dependent on the Eares who together
Voyaging Accounts
© Transcribed from National Library of Australia Manuscript 1 page 88, 2004
Published by South Seas
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/cook_remarks-028