POLYNESIA. 15 



of the groups, natives of the highest rank, enjoying all the comforts 

 and pleasures which arbitrary power could afford, have voluntarily 

 renounced these advantages, for the purpose of visiting distant regions 

 and increasing their knowledge of the world. 



The Polynesians are fond of fighting, and display in their wars a 

 cruel and ferocious disposition. Indifference to human suffering is, 

 indeed, one of their worst characteristics. It is exhibited riot only in 

 war, but in their ill-treatment of the sick, the weak, and the aged, 

 the oppression of their slaves, and the customs of infanticide and 

 human sacrifice. Nor can we suppose that cannibalism would exist 

 among any but a sanguinary people. 



Another well-known trait in their character is a gross licentious- 

 ness, the more remarkable as it contrasts strongly with the opposite 

 disposition in the different races by whom they are surrounded on all 

 sides. 



The weakness of the domestic affections in these islanders has often 

 excited the surprise of their visiters, who have observed their ordina- 

 rily good-humoured and social temperament. The conjugal tie is 

 every where lax. Parents have little authority over their children, 

 even when young ; and in their old age are generally treated with 

 neglect, and often left to perish. Parental affection, which we 

 rarely see wanting in any state of society, is in this race one of the 

 feelings which exert the least influence. In some of the principal 

 groups, as the Society and Sandwich Islands, infanticide, public and 

 systematic, was practised without compunction or excuse, to an extent 

 almost incredible. In New Zealand and the Marquesas, though not 

 so general, it is still frequently committed, and not considered a crime. 

 At Tonga, a father, when suffering from disease, seldom hesitates to 

 sacrifice his child to appease the anger of the gods. It is not, of 

 course, to be understood that cases of strong attachment among mem- 

 bers of a family do not occur, but they attract attention as exceptions 

 from the general rule. 



A lack of conscientiousness is another unpleasing characteristic of 

 the Polynesian islanders. Lying, hypocrisy, and theft, are hardly 

 regarded by them as faults ; and there are very few who will not be 

 guilty of them on a very trifling temptation, and often on none at all. 

 In this point, the Australians, stupid and unamiable as they are, have 

 a great advantage over them, and so, to a certain degree, have the 

 American aborigines. 



Cupidity is a universal trait in this people. The hope of plunder, 



