CHAP. VIII.] CRIMES OF CIVILIZATION. 131 



as to judge of Europeans by the excesses of an ex- 

 cited soldiery or an infuriated mob. If we were to 

 be judged by the conduct of our countrymen in the 

 South Seas, who, unprovoked, have not only fre- 

 quently murdered the innocent by tens and twenties, 

 but, what is still worse, have fostered the passions 

 of the natives against each other in every possible 

 manner, what a picture would be given of our civil- 

 ization ! The history of the discovery of the islands 

 of the South Seas is one continued series of blood- 

 shed and aggression ; and in our intercourse with 

 the New Zealanders it might easily be proved that, 

 in nine out of ten cases in which there has been a 

 conflict between them and Europeans, the fault was 

 on the side of the latter, not even excepting the case 

 of the otherwise humane and benevolent Captain 

 Cook, who shot natives in order to make himself 

 acquainted with their race. If one were to reckon up 

 the crimes and gratuitous cruelties (not including, 

 of course, the unhappy but involuntary consequences 

 of our intercourse) which civilized men have com- 

 mitted against the savage, the balance of humanity, 

 and of other virtues too, would probably be found 

 on the side of the latter. I am acquainted with 

 authentic facts relative to occurrences in many of 

 the South Sea Islands, several of them related to 

 me by the perpetrators themselves, which make the 

 blood boil, and which are only equalled by the 

 treatment of the American Indians as related by Las 

 Cases. 



K 2 



