64 cook's first voyage jan. 



they were content. They seemed to have no wish 



for any thing more than they possessed, nor did any 



thing that we offered them appear acceptable but 



beads, as an ornamental superfluity of life. What 



bodily pain they might suffer from the severities of 



their winter we could not know ; but it is certain 



that they suffered nothing from the want of the 



innumerable articles which we consider not as the 



luxuries and conveniencies only but the necessaries 



of life : as their desires are few, they probably enjoy 



them all ; and how much they may be gainers by an 



exemption from the care, labour, and solicitude, 



which arise from a perpetual and unsuccessful effort 



to gratify that infinite variety of desires which the 



refinements of artificial life have produced among us, 



is not very easy to determine : possibly this may 



counterbalance all the real disadvantages of their 



situation in comparison with ours, and make the 



scales by which good and evil are distributed to man 



hang even between us. 



In this place we saw no quadruped except seals, 

 sea-lions, and dogs : of the dogs it is I'emarkable 

 that they bark, which those that are originally bred 

 in America do not. And this is a further proof, that 

 the people we saw here had, either immediately or 

 remotely, communicated with the inhabitants of 

 Europe. There are, however, other quadrupeds in 

 this part of the country ; for when Mr. Banks was at 

 the top of the highest hill that he ascended in his 

 expedition through the woods, he saw the footsteps 

 of a large beast imprinted upon the surface of a bog, 

 though he could not with any probability guess of 

 what kind it might be. 



Of land-birds there are but few : Mr. Banks saw 

 none larger than an English blackbird, except some 

 hawks and a vulture ; but of water-fowl there is 

 great plenty, particularly ducks. Of fish we saw 

 scarce any, and with our hooks could catch none 



i8 



