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[Page 201]

197.
Some account of New Zealand

of Sails & indeed never unless when they were to go right before the wind  they were made of mat & instead of a mast were hoisted upon two sticks which were fastned one to each side so that they requird two ropes which answerd the purpose of sheets & were fastned to the tops of these sticks  in this clumsey manner they saild with a good deal of swiftness & were steerd by two men who sat in the stern with each a paddle in his hand  I shall set down the dimensions of one that we measurd that was of the largest size  it was in lengh 68 1/2 feet  breadth 5  depth 3 1/2   this was the only one that we measurd or indeed had an opportunity of measuring

For the beauty of their carving in general I fain would say something more about it but find myself much inferior to the task  I shall therefore content myself with saying that their taste varied into two materialy different Stiles  I will call them  one was intirely formd of a number of Spirals diffently connected  the other was in a much more wild taste & I may truly say was like nothing but itself   of the former the truth with which the lines were drawn was surprizing  but above all their method of connecting several spirals into one peice  which they did inimitably well  intermingling

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