17G9' ROUND THE WORLD. 105 



him with such excess of passion. We must indeed 

 estimate the virtue of these people by the only 

 standard of morality, the conformity of their conduct 

 to what in their opinion is right ; but we must not 

 hastily conclude that theft is a testimony of the 

 same depravity in them that it is in us, in the 

 instances in which our people were sufferers by their 

 dishonesty ; for their temptation was such as to 

 surmount would be considered as a proof of uncom- 

 mon integrity among those who have more know- 

 ledge, better principles, and stronger motives to 

 resist the temptations of illicit advantage : an Indian 

 among penny knives, and beads, or even nails and 

 broken glass, is in the same state of trial with the 

 meanest servant in Europe among unlocked coffers 

 of jewels and gold. 



On the 26th, I mounted six swivel guns upon the 

 fort, which I was sorry to see struck the natives with 

 dread : some fishermen who lived upon the point 

 removed farther off, and Owhaw told us, by signs, 

 that in four days we should fire great guns. 



On the 27th, Tubourai Tamaide, with a friend, 

 who ate with a voracity that I never saw before, 

 and the three women that usually attended him, 

 whose names were Terapo, Tirao, and Omie, dined 

 at the fort: in the evening they took their leave, 

 and set out for the house which Tubourai Tamaide 

 had set up in the skirts of the wood ; but in less than 

 a quarter of an hour he returned in great emotion, 

 and hastily seizing Mr. Banks's arm, made signs 

 that he should follow him. Mr. Banks immediately 

 complied, and they soon came up to a place where 

 they found the ship's butcher, with a reaping-hook in 

 his hand : here the chief stopped, and, in a transport 

 of rage which rendered his signs scarcely intelligible, 

 intimated that the butcher had threatened, or attempt- 

 ed, to cut his wife's throat with the reaping-hook. 

 Mr. Banks then signified to him, that if he could fully 

 explain the offence, the man should be punished. 



