126 cook's voyage to dec 



large blood vessels remain in the meat ; nor must too 

 great a quantity be packed together at the first salt- 

 ing, lest the pieces in the middle should heat, and 

 by that means prevent the salt from penetrating them. 

 This once happened to us, when we killed a larger 

 quantity than usual. Rainy, sultry weather, is un- 

 favourable for salting meat in tropical climates. 



Perhaps, the frequent visits Europeans have lately 

 made to these islanders, may be one great induce- 

 ment to their keeping a large stock of hogs, as they 

 have had experience enough to know, that, whenever 

 we come, they may be sure of getting from us what 

 they esteem a valuable consideration for them. At 

 Otaheite, they expect the return of the Spaniards 

 every day ; and they will look for the English, two 

 or three years hence, not only there, but at the other 

 islands. It is to no purpose to tell them, that you 

 will not return. They think you must ; though not 

 of them knows, or will give himself the trouble to 

 inquire the reason of your coming. 



I own, I cannot avoid expressing it as my real 

 opinion, that it would have been far better for these 

 poor people, never to have known our superiority in 

 the accommodations and arts that make life comfort- 

 able, than, after once knowing it, to be again left 

 and abandoned to their original incapacity of im- 

 provement. Indeed, they cannot be restored to that 

 happy mediocrity in which they lived before we dis- 

 covered them, if the intercourse between us should 

 be discontinued. It seems to me, that it has become, 

 in a manner, incumbent on the Europeans to visit 

 them once in three or four years, in order to supply 

 them with those conveniencies which we have intro- 

 duced among them, and have given them a predi- 

 lection for. The want of such occasional supplies 

 will, probably, be very heavily felt by them, when 

 it may be too late to go back to their old less perfect 

 contrivances, which they now despise, and have dis- 

 continued, since the introduction of ours. For, by 



