THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 



137 



trivances, which they now defpife, and have difcontinued, »777- 

 fince the introdu6lion of ours. For, by the time that the 

 iron tools, of which they are now pofTefTed, are worn out, 

 they will have almoft loft the knowledge of their own. A 

 flone hatchet is, at prefent, as rare a thing amongft them, 

 as an iron one was eight years ago ; and a chilTel of bone, 

 or ftone, is not to be feen. Spike-nails have fupplied the 

 place of thefe laft ; and they are weak enough to fancy, that 

 they have got an inexhauftible ftore of them ; for thefe were 

 not now at all fought after. Sometimes, however, nails, 

 much fmallcr than a fpike, would ftill be taken in exchange 

 for fruit. Knives happened, at prefent, to be in great efteem 

 atUlietea; and axes and hatchets remained unrivalled by 

 any other of our commodities, at all the iflands. With re- 

 fpe(5l to articles of mere ornament, thefe people arc as 

 changeable as any of the poliflicd nations of Europe; fo 

 that what pleafes their fancy, while a fafliion is in vogue, 

 may be rejecSled, when another whim has fupplanted it. 

 But our iron tools, are fo flrikingly ufeful, that they will, 

 we may confidently pronounce, continue to prize them 

 highly ; and be completely miferable, if, neither pofleffing 

 the materials, nor trained up to the art of fabricating them, 

 they fliould ceafe to receive fupplics of what may now 

 be confidered as having become neceflary to their comfort- 

 able exiftence. 



Otaheite, though not comprehended in the number of 

 what we have called the Society Iflands, being inhabited by 

 the fame race of men, agreeing in the fame leading fea- 

 tures of character and manners, it was fortunate, that we 

 happened to difcover this principal ifland before the others ; 

 as the friendly and hofpitable reception we there met with, 

 of courfe, led us to make it the principal place of refort, in 



Vol. II. T our 



