“The wife of one of the chiefs appeared with her child, laid in a piece of red cloth, which had been presented to her husband, and seemed to carry it with great tenderness, suckling it much after the manner of our women.  Another chief introduced his daughter, who was young and beautiful, but appeared with all the timidity natural to the sex, though she gazed on us with a kind of anxious concern, that seemed to struggle with her fear, and to express her astonishment at so unusual a sight.  Others advanced with more firmness, and indeed were less reserved than we expected, but behaved with a becoming modesty.  We did not observe any personal deformities amongst either sex, except in a few who had scars of broad superficial ulcers remaining on the face and other parts.  In proportion to the number of people assembled, there appeared not many old men or women; which may easily be accounted for, by supposing that such as were in an advanced period of life, might neither have the inclination nor the ability to come from the more distant parts of the island.  On the other hand, the children were numerous; and both these and the men climbed the trees to look at us when we were hid by the surrounding crowd.”

“About a third part of the men were armed with clubs and spears; and probably these were only the persons who had come from a distance, as many of them had small baskets, mats, and other things, fastened to the ends of their weapons.  The clubs were generally about six feet long, made of a hard black wood, lance-shaped at the end, but much broader, with the edge nicely scolloped, and the whole neatly polished.  Others of them were narrower at the point, much shorter, and plain; and some were even so small as to be used with one hand.  The spears were made of the same wood, simply pointed, and, in general, above twelve feet long; though some were so short that they seemed intended to be thrown as darts.”

“The place where we were all the day was under the shade of various trees, in which they preserved their canoes from the sun.  About eight or ten of them were here, all double ones, that is, two single ones fastened together (as is usual throughout the whole extent of the Pacific Ocean) by rafters lashed across.  They were about twenty feet long, about four feet deep, and the sides rounded with a plank raised upon them, which was fastened strongly by means of withes.  Two of these canoes were most curiously stained, or painted, all over with black, in numberless small figures, as squares, triangles, &c. and excelled by far any thing of that kind I had ever seen at any other island in this ocean.  Our friends here, indeed, seemed to have exerted more skill in doing this than in puncturing their own bodies.  The paddles were about four feet long, nearly elliptical, but broader at the upper end than the middle.  Near the same place was a hut or shed, about thirty feet long, and nine or ten high, in which, perhaps, these boats are built; but at this time it was empty.”