GOVERNMENT. 487 



treachery, cruelty or revenge.* They were very anxious for 

 education. The women were affectionate, tender, and obedient ; 

 the men mild, generous, slow to take offence, and easily satis- 

 fied. Both sexes were very healthy. " I never saw any one," 

 says Forster,""f" " of a morose, peevish, discontented disposition 

 in the whole nation ; they all join to their cheerful temper 

 a politeness and elegance which is happily blended with the 

 most innocent simplicity of manners." Murders were very 

 rare among them ; and though much licence was permitted 

 to the young women before marriage, the married women, 

 according to Captain Cook,J were as well behaved "as in any 

 other country whatever/' They were very thievish ; but we 

 must consider the immense temptations to which they were 

 subjected, and the, to them, inestimable value of the articles 

 which they stole. Like other savages, they resembled children 

 in many respects : their sorrows were transient, their passions 

 suddenly and strongly expressed. On one occasion, Oberea, 

 the queen, who was then about forty years old, took a parti- 

 cular fancy to a large doll, which was accordingly presented 

 to her. Shortly afterwards they met Tootahah, one of the 

 principal chiefs, who became so jealous of Oberea's doll, that 

 they were obliged to give him one also. 



There are scarcely any nations, whether barbarous or civi- 

 lized, in which the relations of the two sexes are on the whole 

 satisfactory. Savages, almost without exception, treat their 

 women as slaves, and civilized nations too often avoid this 

 error only to fall into others. 



The inhabitants of Tahiti are said to have been absolutely 

 without any ideas of decency, or rather, as Captain Cook puts 

 it, perhaps more correctly, " of indecency," that is, at least, in 

 our sense of the term. This no doubt arose in part from their 

 large open houses, which were not divided into separate rooms. 



* First Voyage, vol. ii. p. 188. $ "Voyage to the South Pole, 



t 1. c, p. 582. Tol. i. p. 187. 



