Ch. v. the Islands of the South Sea. 69 



food, are established beyond a possibility of 

 doubt.* Captain Cook, who is by no means in- 

 clined to exaggerate the vices of savage life, says, 

 of the natives in the neighbourhood of Queen 

 Charlotte's Sound, " If I had followed the advice 

 " of all our pretended friends, I might have extir- 

 " pated the whole race ; for the people of each 

 " hamlet or village, by turns, applied to me to de- 

 " stroy the other. One would have thought it al- 

 " most impossible that so striking a proof of the 

 " divided state in which these miserable people 

 " live, could have been assigned. "f And, in the 

 same chapter, further on, he says, " From my 

 " own observations, and the information of Taw- 

 " eiharooa, it appears to me, that the New Zea- 

 " landers must live under perpetual apprehensions 

 " of being destroyed by each other; there being 

 " few of their tribes that have not, as they think, 

 " sustained wrongs from some other tribes, which 

 " they are continually upon the watch to revenge. 

 " And, perhaps, the desire of a good meal may be 

 "no small incitement.**** Their method of exc- 

 " cuting their horrible designs is by stealing upon 

 " the adverse party in the night ; and if they find 

 " them unguarded (which, however, I believe, is 

 " very seldom the case) they kill every one indis- 

 " criminately, not even sparing the women and 

 " children. When the massacre is completed, 

 " they either feast and gorge themselves on the 



* Cook's Second Voyage, vol. i. p. 246. 

 t Id. Third Voyage, vol. i, p. \24. 



