pigafetta’s voyage round the world.

3 2 5

of their wounds, a circumftance that did not fail to excite our pity. Still, when theyfaw us about to depart, they followed us with more than a hundred canoes, and Ihewedus filh as if difpofed to fell it; but when near us they pelted us with flones, and tookto flight. We failed through the midft of'them under full fail, but they avoided ourveflels with much dexterity. We likewife faw in their boats, crying and tearing theirhair, fome women, whofe hufbands probably had been killed.

Thefe people are ignorant of any law, and are guided merely by their inclinations.They have no king, nor any chief; adore no Being or image, and go naked. Someamong them have a long beard, and black hair, tied over the forehead and hangingdown to the girdle. They likewife wear fmall hats made of palm. They are ofgood fize and well built. Their complexion is an olive brown, but we were told theyare born fair, and become dark as they increafe in years. They poflfefs the art of ftain-ln g their teeth red and black, which with them is a mark of beauty # . The womenare pretty, of handfome Ihape, and lefs dark than the men. Their hair is very black,deek, and hangs to the ground. They go naked like the men, except their privities,'Which they cover with a very narrow (trip of cloth, or rather of the inner bark of thepalm-tree. Their whole employment is in their houfes, in making mats and bafkets ofthe leaves of the palm-tree, and in other fimilar works. Both men and women anointtheir hair, and the whole of the body, with the oil of the cocoa-nut and fefeli f.

Thefe people live on birds, flying-fifh, potatoes, a fort, of figs half a foot long J,fugar-canes and other fimilar productions. Their houfes are of wood covered withplanks, over which leaves of their fig-trees four feet in length are fpread §. Theyhave tolerably decent rooms, with rafters and window frames; and their beds arepretty foft, being made of very fine matting of the palm-tree laid upon ftraw. Theironly arms are a lance tipped with pointed fifli-bone. The inhabitants of thefe iflandsare poor, but very dextrous, and above all at thieving ; for this reafon we gave thename De los Ladrones || to the iflands.

Their chief amufement confifts in failing about with their wives in canoes fimilar tothe gondolas of Fufine near Venice ^[, but they are ftill more narrow ; all of them arepainted, either blafk, white, or red. The fail is made of the leaves of the palm-treefe'ved together, and has the Ihape of a latine fail. It is always placed on one fide ; and°n the oppofite fide, to form an equipoife to the fail, they fallen a large wooden log,pointed at one end, with poles laid acrofs and fixed in it, which keeps the boat Heady**nd admits of their failing without apprehenfion ; their rudder refembles a baker’slhovel, that is to fay, it confifts of a pole faftened into a plank. They make no differ-® n ce between head and ftern, as they have a rudder at each end. They are excellentWl mmers, and have as little fear of the fea as dolphins ff.

■j,, .The cuftom of blackening the teeth ftill prevails in the Pelew Iflands adjoining to thofe of Mariana,fo e V". In ^ a ^i tants form a kind °f pafte from certain herbs, which they apply to the teeth for fome dayspurpofe (Keate, an Account of the Pelew Iflands, p. 3 r4.)

T A fpecies of fmall oily grain, very common in China , the Ruphanus oleifer finenfis, Linn,i?, ^ e f e hgs are bananas, or the fruit of the mufa (mnfa pifang, Linn.). In future I fhall always ufe

lerm banana inftead of fig, which is that the author has employed.

II are ^ eaves t ^ e bananier.

j„ 1 , ^ h f ywere afterwards called Las lfias de las Velas, from the number of fails continally palling ; and.Noo t llme Philip IV. of Spain they were called the Marianas , in honour of Maria of Auftria, his Queen.r obfenes that, even in his time, they well deferved they name of the iflands.

** a* iong gondolas extremely narrow, ufed between Fufine and Venice,here J p° n anc * Cook faw velfels navigated by the individuals of the fouth feas of the ftrudlure and planj , * r 5 r ‘hed, and much commend the ingenuity of the contrivance.

Ifland rV ^' 3 ac(:ount > s iL perhaps, that an illand contiguous to the Mariana Iflands is denominated theu ot Swimmers.

They