Their fishing-hooks are made of mother-of-pearl, bone, or wood, pointed and barbed with small bones or tortoise-shell.  They are of various sizes and forms, but the most common are about two or three inches long, and made in the shape of a small fish, which serves as a bait, having a bunch of feathers tied to the head or tail.  Those with which they fish for sharks are of a very large size, being generally six or eight inches long.  Considering the materials of which these hooks were made, their strength and neatness are really astonishing; and, in fact, we found them, upon trial, much superior to our own.

The line which they use for fishing, for making nets, and for other domestic purposes is of different degrees of fineness, and is made of the bark of the touta, or cloth-tree; neatly and evenly twisted, in the same manner as our common twine; and may be continued to any length.  They have a finer sort, made of the bark of a small shrub, called areemah; and the finest is made of human hair; but this last is chiefly used for things of ornament.  They also make cordage of a stronger kind, for the rigging of their canoes, from the fibrous coatings of the cocoa-nuts.  Some of this we purchased for our own use, and found it well adapted to the smaller kinds of the running rigging.  They likewise make another sort of cordage, which is flat, and exceedingly strong, and used principally in lashing the roofing of their houses, or whatever they wish to fasten tight together.  This last is not twisted like the former sorts, but is made of the fibrous strings of the cocoa-nut’s coat, plaited with the fingers, in the manner our sailors make their points for the reefing of sails.

The gourds, which grow to so enormous a size, that some of them are capable of containing from ten to twelve gallons, are applied to all manner of domestic purposes; and in order to fit them the better to their respective uses, they have the ingenuity to give them different forms, by tying bandages round them during their growth.  Thus some of them are of a long cylindrical form, as best adapted to contain their fishing-tackle; others are of a dish form, and these serve to hold their salt and salted provisions, their puddings, vegetables, &c. which two sorts have neat close covers, made likewise of the gourd; others, again, are exactly in the shape of a bottle with a long neck, and in these they keep their water.  They have likewise a method of scoring them with a heated instrument, so as to give them the appearance of being painted in a variety of neat and elegant designs.

Amongst their arts, we must not forget that of making salt, with which we were amply supplied during our stay at these islands, and which was perfectly good of its kind.  Their salt-pans are made of earth, lined with clay; being generally six or eight feet square, and about eight inches deep.  They are raised upon a bank of stones near to high-water mark, from whence the salt-water is conducted to the foot