THE SOCIETY ISLANDS 233 



lect precious information as to this warlike 

 island, which had subjugated, thanks to the su- 

 periority of its weapons, its two neighbours, 

 Ulietea and Otaha. He left several animals at 

 Bolabola, as he had done at all the islands of the 

 Society group which he had visited. 



But it was time for him to leave this delightful 

 locality and to plunge into the unknown. The 

 great work still lay before him. One evening 

 Cook, alone in his cabin in the Resolution, re- 

 viewed the four months which he had just passed 

 in these happy islands. He had, as far as had 

 been possible to him, sown the benefits of civili- 

 sation in this corner of the Pacific. Had it been 

 to the good? He reflected for a long time, then 

 he opened his Journal, took his pen and wrote: 

 "I own, I cannot avoid expressing it as my real 

 opinion, that it would have been better for these 

 poor people, never to have known our superior- 

 ity in the accommodations and arts that make 

 life comfortable, than, after once knowing it, to 

 be again left and abandoned to their original 

 incapacity of improvement. Indeed, they can- 

 not be restored to that happy mediocrity in 

 which they lived before we discovered them, if 

 the intercourse between us should be discontin- 

 ued. It seems to me, that it has become, in a 

 manner, incumbent on the Europeans to visit 

 them once in three or four years, in order to 



