212 COOK'S VOYAGE TO FEB, 



position ; and were I to draw any comparisons, I 

 should say, that they are equally free from the fickle 

 levity which distinguishes the natives of Otaheite, and 

 the sedate cast observable amongst many of those of 

 Tongataboo. They seem to live very sociably in their 

 intercourse with one another ; and, except the pro- 

 pensity to thieving, which seems innate in most of 

 the people we have visited in this ocean, they were 

 exceedingly friendly to us. And it does their sensi- 

 bility no little credit, without flattering ourselves, 

 that when they saw the various articles of our Euro- 

 pean manufacture, they could not help expressing 

 their surprise, by a mixture of joy and concern, that 

 seemed to apply the case, as a lesson of humility, to 

 themselves ; and, on all occasions, they appeared 

 deeply impressed with a consciousness of their own 

 inferiority ; a behaviour which equally exempts their 

 national character from the preposterous pride of the 

 more polished Japanese, and of the ruder Green- 

 lander. It was a pleasure to observe with how much 

 affection the women managed their infants, and how 

 readily the men lent their assistance to such a tender 

 office ; thus sufficiently distinguishing themselves from 

 those savages who esteem a wife and child as things 

 rather necessary than desirable, or worthy of their 

 notice. 



From the numbers which we saw collected at every 

 village, as we sailed past, it may be supposed that 

 the inhabitants of this island are pretty numerous. 

 Any computation that we make can be only conjec- 

 tural. But that some notion may be formed, which 

 shall not greatly err on either side, 1 should suppose 

 that, including the straggling houses, there might be, 

 upon the whole island, sixty such villages, as that 

 before which we anchored ; and that, allowing five 

 persons to each house, there would be, in every vil- 

 lage, five hundred ; or thirty thousand upon the 

 island. This number is, certainly, not exaggerated ; 

 for we had sometimes three thousand persons, at 



