Tahitian Cloth

I shall now describe their way of making Cloth, which, in my opinion, is the only Curious manufacture they have. All their Cloth is, I believe, made from the Bark of Trees; the finest is made from a plant which they Cultivate for no other purpose.* (* Broussonetia papyrifera. The manufacture is common to all Polynesia, and the ordinary name for it in the Pacific is Tapa. The Tahitians, however, called it Ahu.) Dr. Solander thinks it is the same plant the bark of which the Chinese make paper of. They let this plant grow till it is about 6 or 8 feet high, the Stem is then about as thick as one's Thum or thicker; after this they cut it down and lay it a Certain time in water. This makes the Bark strip off easy, the outside of which is scraped off with a rough Shell. After this is done it looks like long strips of ragged linnen; these they lay together, by means of a fine paist made of some sort of a root, to the Breadth of a yard more or less, and in length 6, 8 or 10 Yards or more according to the use it is for. After it is thus put together it is beat out to its proper breadth and fineness, upon a long square piece of wood, with wooden beaters, the Cloth being keept wet all the time. The beaters are made of hard wood with four square sides, are about 3 or 4 inches broad and cut into grooves of different fineness; this makes the Cloth look at first sight as if it was wove with thread, but I believe the principal use of the Groves is to facilitate the beating it out, in the doing of which they often beat holes in it, or one place thinner than another; but this is easily repair'd by pasting on small bits, and this they do in such a manner that the Cloth is not the least injured. The finest sort when bleached is very white and comes nearest to fine Cotton. Thick cloth, especially fine, is made by pasting two or more thickness's of thin cloth, made for that Purpose, together. Coarse thick cloth and ordinary thin cloth is made of the Bark of Bread fruit Trees, and I think I have been told that it is sometimes made from the Bark of other trees. The making of Cloth is wholy the work of the women, in which all ranks are employ'd. Their common colours are red, brown and yellow, with which they dye some pieces just as their fancy leads them. Besides Cloth they make several different sorts of matting, both better and finer than any we have in Europe; the stuff they make it on is the Produce of the Palm tree.

This Island produceth 2 or 3 sorts of plants, of which they make the rope they use in rigging their Canoes, etc.; the finest sort, such as fishing lines, saine twine, etc., is made of the Bark of a Tree, and some from the Kind of Silk grass. Their fishing lines and saines are in Point of goodness preferable to any of ours. Their fishing Hooks are very curiously made of Tortoise, Pearl Oyster Shells, etc. They have a sort of Saine that is made of Coarse broad grass like flags; these are twisted and tied together in a loose manner until the whole is as thick as a large sack, and 60 or 80 fathoms long. This they haul in Shoal smooth water; its own weight keeps it so close to the ground that hardly the smallest fish can escape out.