Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 11 



J. R. Forster (^Observations made on a voyage round the 

 World, 1778), speaks of the fine climate and the beauty 

 of the females, as inviting powerfully to the enjoyments 

 and pleasures of love. Yet he is over and over again im- 

 pelled to set down facts which bear testimony to the virtues 

 of these people. Though rather effeminate in build they 

 are athletic, he says. Moreover in their wars they fight 

 with great bravery and valour. They are, for the rest, 

 hospitable. He remarks that they treat their married women 

 with great respect, and that women generally are nearly 

 the equals of men, both in intelligence and social position ; 

 he gives a charming description of the women. ' In short 

 their character,' he concludes, ' is as amiable as that of any 

 nation that ever came unimproved out of the hands of 

 Nature '[!]" . . . 



" When Cook," continues Ellis, " who visited Tahiti 

 many times, was among this ' benevolent, humane ' people, 

 he noted their esteem for chastity, and found that not only 

 were betrothed girls strictly guarded before marriage, but 

 that men also who had refrained from sexual intercourse 

 for some time before marriage were believed to pass at death 

 immediately into the abode of the blessed." 



Radack — one of the Caroline Islands 



From Chamisso's Reise urn die Welt^ p. 183. (Leipzig.) 



" Thus we made acquaintance with a people who have 

 endeared themselves to me more than any others of the 

 children of Earth. The very weaknesses of the Radack 

 folk removed mistrust on our side ; their very gentleness 

 and goodness caused them to be trustful towards us, the 

 all-powerful strangers ; we became declared friends. I 

 found among them simple, unsophisticated manners, charin, 



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