Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/388

360 she inspired. Having brought us some fruits, she immediately went and seated herself behind her mother, from whence she occasionally stole a glance at us, to satisfy her curiosity.

This frugal repast was not without its charms. To our reflections on the life of a man who undertakes long voyages, were added the pleasing idea which we had formed of the happiness of those islanders, whose wants nature has supplied with so liberal a hand.

The construction of their houses is adapted to the beauty of the climate; and the lightness of their materials renders it unnecessary to dig their foundations down to the rock.

As the inhabitants never experience severe weather, the walls are constructed in such a manner as to allow a free passage to the air. They consist of a sort of paling, frequently formed of twigs of bamboo, placed very near each other.

The cottage of our host, which occupied a space thirteen feet in length, and about ten in breadth, instead of bamboos, was wattled with the stems of the sago-tree limbs (feuilles), which, though near together, left some intervals, through which the external air had free access into the habitation.

Those stems, though very light, have a great deal of solidity, being covered with a very hard bark.