272 THE ARU ISLANDS. [chap, xxxii. 



many more ; yet English calicoes and American cotton 

 cloths could be bought for 8s. the piece, miiskets for 15s., 

 common scissors and German knives at three-halfpence 

 each, and other cutlery, cotton goods, and earthenware in 

 the same proportion. The natives of this out-of-the-way 

 country can, in fact, buy all these things at about the 

 same money price as our workmen at home, but in reality 

 very much cheaper, for the produce of a few hours' labour 

 enables the savage to purchase in abundance what are to 

 him luxuries, while to the European they are necessaries 

 of life. The barbarian is no happier and no better off for 

 this cheapiiess. On the contrary, it has a most injurious 

 effect on him. He wants the stimulus of necessity to 

 force him to labour ; and if iron were as dear as silver, and 

 calico as costly as satin, the effect would be beneficial to 

 liim. As it is, he has more idle hours, gets a more constant 

 supply of tobacco, and can intoxicate himself with arrack 

 more frequently and more thoroughly ; for your Aru man 

 scorns to get half drunk — a tumbler full of arrack is but 

 a slight stimulus, and nothing less than iialf a gallon of 

 spirit will make him tipsj^ to his own satisfaction. 



It is not agreeable to reflect on this state of things. At 

 least half of the vast multitudes of uncivilized peoples, 

 on whom our gigantic manufacturing system, enormous 

 capital,. and intense competition force the produce of our 

 looms and workshops, would be not a whit worse off 



