Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0200
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[Page 200]
196.
Some account of New Zealand
magnificently adornd their heads were formd by a Plank of projecting about 3 feet before the canoe & and on their sterns stood up another proportiond to the size of the canoe from ten to 18 feet high both these were most richly carvd with open work & coverd with loose fringes of Black feathers which that had a most gracefull effect the gunnel boards were often also carvd in a grotesque taste & ornamentd with white feathers in bunches placd upon a black ground at certain intervals they sometimes joind two small canoes together & now & then made use of an outligger as is practisd in the Islands seldom towards the north rather oftener to the Southward
in managing these canoes they are very expert, in the padling of them at least in one I counted 16 padlers of a side & never did men I beleive keep better time with their strokes driving on the boat with immense velocity
[Margin note] row fast
their paddles are often ornamented with carving their blade is of an oval shape pointed towards the bottom broadest in the middle & again sloping towards the handle which is about 4 feet long the whole being generaly near 6. more or less feet long more or less
but in sailing they are not so expert we very seldom saw them make use