14 ETHNOGRAPHY. 



They are unquestionably a people of good intellectual endowments. 

 Perhaps no savages have ever shown such a capacity and such a dis- 

 position for improvement. Indeed, it is easy to see that before they 

 were visited by whites they had attained a grade of civilization nearly 

 as high as their circumstances would permit. A few thousand people, 

 crowded together in a small island, without metals, with no large ani- 

 mals for labour or transportation, and no neighbours from whom they 

 can by commerce supply their deficiencies, must find their progress 

 beyond a certain point barred by insurmountable obstacles ; and this 

 point there is good reason to believe that the Polynesians had nearly 

 reached long before their intercourse with foreigners commenced. 

 They are, however, more remarkable for quickness of apprehension, 

 and the readiness with which they acquire mechanical arts, than for 

 their powers of reasoning. A sustained application soon wearies 

 them ; and the levity of their disposition influences their intellectual 

 efforts, as well as their passions and feelings. Their taste and inge- 

 nuity appear to advantage in the carving of their canoes and weapons, 

 in their tattooing, and the colouring of their cloths and mats. Their 

 idols, which are made after an established pattern, and intended merely 

 to inspire fear, give no proper idea of their abilities in this respect. 

 Their poetical compositions show that they are not deficient in imagi- 

 nation, though, in this respect, they appear, strangely enough, to be 

 inferior to their savage neighbours of the Feejee Group. 



A disposition for enterprise and bold adventure characterizes all the 

 Polynesian tribes. They are a race of navigators, and often under- 

 take long voyages in vessels in which our own sailors would hesitate 

 to cross a harbour. Their insular situation will not alone account 

 for this disposition. The inhabitants of the Melanesian islands, in 

 circumstances precisely similar, are remarkable for their unwilling- 

 ness to wander from their homes. Captain Cook found that the 

 natives of Erromango, one of the New Hebrides, had apparently no 

 knowledge of Sandwich Land, the next island to the north, distant 

 about sixty miles. On the contrary, not only is a constant communi- 

 cation kept up among the different islands of each group of Polynesia, 

 but perilous voyages of many days between different groups are fre- 

 quent. The natives may be said to be cosmopolites by natural feel- 

 ing. Accordingly, no sooner do ships make their appearance in the 

 Pacific than we find the islanders eager to engage on board of them, 

 for no purpose but to gratify their roving disposition, and their desire 

 of seeing foreign countries. And it is a remarkable fact, that on most 



