1778. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 283 



Though these people cannot be viewed without a 

 kind of horror, when equipped in such extravagant 

 dresses, yet when divested of them, and beheld in 

 their common habit and actions, they have not the 

 least appearance of ferocity in their countenances ; 

 and seem, on the contrary, as observed already, to 

 be of a quiet, phlegmatic, and inactive disposition; 

 destitute, in some measure, of that degree of anim- 

 ation and vivacity that would render them agreeable 

 as social beings. If they are not reserved, they are 

 far from being loquacious ; but their gravity is, per- 

 haps, rather a consequence of the disposition just 

 mentioned, than of any conviction of its propriety, or 

 the effect of any particular mode of education. For, 

 even in the greatest paroxysms of their rage, they 

 seem unable to express it sufficiently, either with 

 warmth of language, or significancy of gestures. 



Their orations, which are made either when en- 

 gaged in any altercation or dispute, or to explain 

 their sentiments publicly on other occasions, seem 

 little more than short sentences, or rather single 

 words, forcibly repeated, and constantly in one tone 

 and degree of strength, accompanied only with a 

 single gesture, which they use at every sentence, jerk- 

 ing their whole body a little forward, by bending the 

 knees, their arms hanging down by their sides at the 

 same time. 



Though there be too much reason, from their 

 bringing to sale human skulls and bones, to infer that 

 they. treat their enemies with a degree of brutal cru- 

 elty, this circumstance rather marks a general agree- 

 ment of character with that of almost every tribe of 

 uncivilized man, in every age, and in every part of 

 the globe, than that they are to be reproached with 

 any charge of peculiar inhumanity. We had no 

 reason to judge unfavourably of their disposition in 

 this respect. They seem to be a docile, courteous, 

 good-natured people ; but notwithstanding the pre- 

 dominant phlegm of their tempers, quick in resenting 



