130 DISPOSITION OF THE TAHAITIANS. 
great ease; and the sea yields abundance of 
shell and other fish, for the trifling trouble of 
catching it: the brooks also contain fish, and a 
species of crab. The opulent eat fowls and 
pigs roasted over hot stones ina hole in the 
ground, the flavour of which is very agreeable 
even to an European; and, by way of variety, 
they roast dugs which have been fed upon vege- 
tables, and are considered great delicacies. 
Several families often live together in the 
same house, in the greatest concord. Their 
furniture consists simply of a few ingeniously- 
woven mats for sleeping on, and some vessels 
made of gourds and cocoa-nut shells. 
The disposition of the Tahaitians is gentle, 
benevolent, open, gay, and peaceable, although 
some of them show scars of wounds received in 
war, which prove that they are not deficient in 
courage. To hatred and revenge they are 
wholly strangers. Hardly and unjustly as Cook 
sometimes treated them, he was pardoned imme- 
diately that he required their assistance, and 
showed the slightest wish to pacify them. Indi- 
viduals of his crew often ventured to pass the 
nights alone and unarmed upon the island: 
