1?77- THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 149 



besides the humiliating* restraints they are laid under 

 with regard to food, to find them often treated with 

 a degree of harshness, or rather brutality, which one 

 would scarcely suppose a man would bestow on an 

 object for whom he had the least affection. Nothing, 

 however, is more common, than to see the men beat 



The people of the Ladrones, Father Le Gobien tells us, sometimes 

 do the same. D 'autres Jrottent les morts d'huile odoriferante. 8. 

 The inhabitants of Otaheite [See Hawkesworth, vol. ii. p. 239, 

 24*0.3 believe the immortality of the soul ; and that there are two 

 situations after death, somewhat analogous to our heaven and hell; 

 but they do not suppose, that their actions here in the least influence 

 their future state. And in the account given in this voyage [Vol. i. 

 p. 403.] of the religious opinions entertained at the Friendly 

 Islands, we find there exactly the same doctrine. It is very ob- 

 servable, how conformable to this is the belief of the inhabitants of 

 the Ladrones. lis soni persuades (says Le Gobien) de I'immorta- 

 life de Vdme. lis reconnoissent meme un Paradis fy un Erifer, dont 

 Us sejbrment des idees assez bizarres. Ce n est point, selon eux, la 

 vertu ni le crime, qui conduit dans ces lieux la ; les bonnes ou les 

 mauvaises actions ?i'y servent de rien. 9. One more very singular 

 instance of agreement shall close this long list. In Captain Cook's 

 account of the New Zealanders [Vol. i. p. 138.], we find, that, 

 according to them, the soul of the man, that is killed, and whose 

 flesh is devoured, is doomed to a perpetual fire ; while the souls of 

 all who die a natural death ascend to the habitations of the Gods. 

 And from Le Gobien, we learn, that this very notion is adopted 

 by his islanders. Si on a le malheur de mourir de mort violente, 

 on a V e iifer pour leur partage. 



Surely such a concurrence of very characteristic conformities 

 cannot be the result of mere accident ; and, when combined with 

 the specimens of affinity of language mentioned at the beginning of 

 this note, it should seem, that we are fully warranted, from pre- 

 mises thus unexceptionable, to draw a certain conclusion, that the 

 inhabitants of the various islands discovered or visited by Captain 

 Cook, in the South Pacific Ocean, and those whom the Spaniards 

 found settled upon the Ladrones or Mariannes, in the northern he- 

 misphere, carried the same language, customs, and opinions, from 

 one common centre, from which they had emigrated ; and that, 

 therefore, they may be considered as scattered members of the 

 same nation. 



See Pere le Gobien's Histoire des Isles Mariannes, book ii. or 

 the summary of it in Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes y 

 t- ii. p. 492 512, from which the materials for this note have 

 been extracted. 



L 3 



