PREVALENCE OF CANNIBALISM. 263 
men who remained on board, became very 
troublesome; like the beasts of the deserts, 
scarcely more wild than themselves, they tried 
to seize by main force whatever we would not 
willingly give them. One of them was so 
tempted by the accidental display of a sailor’s 
bare arm, that he could not help expressing his 
horrible appetite for human flesh ;—he snapt at 
it with his teeth, giving us to understand by 
unequivocal signs, that such food would be very 
palatable to him. This proof that we were in 
communication with cannibals, needed not the 
picture presently conjured up by our imagina- 
tion, of the detestable meal which the unfortu- 
nate Frenchmen had doubtlessly afforded to 
their murderers, to complete our disgust and 
aversion, and to accelerate the expulsion of the 
remaining savages from our vessel. 
The inhabitants of many of the South Sea 
islands are still cannibals, and most of them, 
even where this abominable propensity does not 
prevail, are of so artful and treacherous a cha- 
racter, that none should venture among them 
without the greatest precaution. Their friend- 
liness arises from fear, and soon vanishes when 
