Native American dugouts. Copy of a 16th-century artwork of Algonquian men making dugout canoes. The process starts with fire used to fell a tree and remove the branches (background). Fire and tools are then used to hollow out and shape the trunk into a canoe shape. Dugout canoe building dates back thousands of years to the Stone Age. This coloured version of a 1590 engraving by Theodor de Bry was published in 'Travels through Virginia' (1618) by William Strachey. The original was a watercolour by John White who visited the area in 1585. White's artworks are amongst the earliest surviving images of North America.