33 2

HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

the porcelain of China, and in the fanciful paintings of other countries. Thiscircumstance appeared striking, and some pains were taken to get at thehistory of it; but it was among many other enquiries to which no satisfactoryanswer could be obtained.

“ After we had been some time in King George’s Sound, the natives began tomake use of sails made of mats, in imitation of ours. We had, indeed, riggedone of Hannah’s large canoes for him with a pendant, &c. &c. of which he wasproud beyond measure; and he never approached the ship but he hoisted his pen-dant, to the very great diversion of our seamen.

“ The paddles are nicely shaped and well polished with fish-skin ; they areabout five feet six inches in length, and the blade, which is about two feet long, ispointed like a leaf: the point itself is lengthened several inches, and is about one inchbroad: at the end of the handle there is a transverse piece of wood, like the topof a crutch. These paddles, the natives use in a most dexterous manner, and■urge on the canoes with inconceivable swiftness.”

The similitude these vessels also bear to those of antiquity, is no less strongthan in the instances already pointed out. The proportionate dimensions accordmost strikingly; and from the description given by Mr. Meares, of the canoe therexised, for he has not furnished any draught, there appears little reason to suspectany material variation between its contour or shape, and that of the ancient vesselor galley, whose model was found in the Villa Mathei, during the sixteenthcentury*. The ideas of ornament and grandeur appear to keep an equalpace with those of use, as is sufficiently evident from the anecdotes of thesail and pendant; which latter, without doubt, experienced as many admirersas the first. It may be urged in argument, perhaps, that the proximity of theSpanish Settlements, so nearly situated as they are to Nootka Sound, the distancenot being more than twelve hundred miles, might have had some, and indeedno inconsiderable degree of influence, on the practical part of the science ofmarine architecture, as well as the art of navigation ; and that this influencemight be created, even without the inhabitants of the district just men-tioned, ever discovering that such people as the Spaniards were in existence.But notwithstanding, it may be admitted, that the chain of intercourse,which may be supposed to be carried on between the different tribes inhabitingthe coast, might be so extensive, that the practice, by its frequent change ofhands/ and as frequent alteration from the original construction, became so

* See Vol. I. p. 114.

altered