Some of the natives gave us an account of many neighbouring islands, to the number of nineteen, and shewed us one of them from a hill, which was Yoole Etea.

Most of the natives of this island smell strong of the cocoa oil, and are of a pale brown complexion, mostly having black hair, and that often frizzled; black eyes, flat nose, and large mouth, with a chearful countenance; they all wear their beards, but cut off their mustachios, [see pl. VIII. fig. I.] are well made, and very sturdy, having their bellies in general very prominent; and are a timorous, merry, facetious, hospitable people. There are more tall men among them than among any people I have seen, measuring six feet, three inches and a half; but the women in general are small compared with the men. [See pl.V.] They must be very honest amongst them-selves, as every house is without any fastening. Locks, bolts, and bars are peculiar to civilized countries, where their moral theory is the best, and their moral practices too generally of the worst; which might induce a celebrated writer to conclude, though erroneously, that mankind, upon the whole, are necessarily rendered worse, and less happy, by civilization, and the cultivation of the arts and sciences. Nature’s wants, it is true, are but few, and the uncivilized part of mankind, in general, seem contented if they can acquire those few. Ambition, and the love of luxurious banquets, and other superfluities, are but little known in the bar-barous nations: they have, in general, less anxious thought for the morrow, than civilized; and therefore feel more enjoyment while they partake of heaven’s bounty in the present day. Unaccustomed to indulgences in cloathing and diet, which Europeans have carried to an extreme, they are less subject to diseases; are more robust; feel less from the inclemencies of the seasons, and are, in constitu-tion, what the ancient Britons were before their civilization. Unhappily for us, the athletic constitution of our ancestors is not to be found amongst us, being enervated by excesses of various kinds; while diseases, the effect of intemperance and debaucheries, contaminate our blood, and render them hereditary amongst our offspring.

Voyaging Accounts