Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/217

1769 joined together in the same manner as the war-boats, and that they have a small neat house five or six feet broad by seven or eight long fastened upon the fore-part of them, in which the principal people, who use them very much, sit while they are carried from place to place. The sailing ivahahs have also this house upon them when two are joined together, which is, however, but seldom. Indeed, the difference between these two consists almost entirely in the rigging, and I have divided them into two more because they are generally seen employed in very different occupations than from any real difference in their build.

All ivahahs agree in the sides built like walls and the bottoms flat. In this they differ from the pahie (Fig. 2), of which the sides bulge out and the bottom is sharp, answering, in some measure, instead of a keel.

These pahies differ very much in size: I have seen them from 30 to 60 feet in length, but, like the ivahahs, they are very narrow in proportion to their length. One that I measured was 51 feet in length, but only 1½ feet in breadth at the top (a) and 3 feet in the bilge (b, see Fig. 2). This is about the general proportion. Their round sides, however, make them capable of carrying much greater burthens and being much safer sea-boats, in consequence of which they are used merely for fighting and making long voyages. For purposes of fishing and travelling along shore the natives of the islands where they are chiefly used have ivahahs. The fighting pahies, which are the longest, are fitted in the same manner as the fighting ivahahs, only as they carry far greater burthens, the stages are proportionately larger. Two sailing boats are most generally fastened together for this purpose; those of a middling size are said to be best, and least liable to accident in stormy weather. In these, if we may credit the reports of the inhabitants, they make very long voyages, often remaining several months from home, visiting in that time many different islands, of which they reported to us the names of nearly a hundred; they cannot, however, remain at sea above a fortnight or twenty days, although they live as sparingly as possible, for want of proper pro-