OF THE TONGA PEOPLE.

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fortifications j making ropes, bows and arrows, *clubs and spears, which are practised by men,whilst the manufacture of gnatoo , mats, baskets,thread, combs, &c., constitute the occasionalemployment of the women, even of those ofrank. We shall give an account of each of theprincipal arts, beginning with those that arestrictly professional.

Fo vaca, canoe-building. As it would beimpossible to give an intelligible and accuratedescription of this ingenious and useful art,without referring to well-executed plates, andas this has been already so ably done in Cook’sand d’Entrecasteaux’s voyages, we presume itwould be but an unnecessary intrusion upon theattention of the reader to attempt entering intosuch a description. It may here be noticed,however, that the Tonga people have obtaineda considerable share of information in the art ofbuilding and rigging canoes, from the nativesof the Fiji islands. It has already been ob-served, that, in all probability, the communica-tion between these two nations, at the distanceof one hundred and twenty leagues, began onthe part of the Tonga people, who being situ-ated to windward, it is very likely that one ormore of their canoes were formerly drifted tothe Fiji islands by stress of weather; and al-though they have no tradition of such a cir-