438 cook's voyage to july, 



considered as denoting a character deeply stained 

 with moral turpitude, with avarice unrestrained by 

 the known rules of right, and with profligacy pro- 

 ducing extreme indigence, and neglecting the means 

 of relieving it. But at the Friendly and other 

 islands which we visited, the thefts so frequently 

 committed by the natives, of what we had brought 

 along with us, may be fairly traced to less culpable 

 motives. They seemed to arise, solely from an 

 intense curiosity or desire to possess something 

 which they had not been accustomed to before, 

 and belonging to a sort of people so different from 

 themselves. And, perhaps, if it were possible, that 

 a set of beings seemingly as superior in our judg- 

 ment as we are in theirs, should appear amongst 

 us, it might be doubted, whether our natural regard 

 to justice would be able to restrain many from 

 falling into the same error. That I have assigned 

 the true motive for their propensity to this practice, 

 appears from their stealing every thing indiscrimi- 

 nately at first sight, before they could have the 

 least conception of converting their prize to any 

 one useful purpose. But, I believe, with us, no 

 person would forfeit his reputation, or expose him- 

 self to punishment, without knowing before-hand, 

 how to employ the stolen goods. Upon the whole, 

 the pilfering disposition of these islanders, though 

 certainly disagreeable and troublesome to strangers, 

 was the means of affording us some information as 

 to the quickness of their intellects. For their small 

 thefts were committed with much dexterity ; and 

 those of greater consequence with a plan or scheme 

 suited to the importance of the objects. An ex- 

 traordinary instance of the last sort, their attempts 

 to carry away one of the Discovery's anchors at 

 mid-day, has been already related. 



Their hair is in general straight, thick, and 

 strong; though a 1 few have it bushy or frizzled. 



