. * 



f 



306 



REMARKS 



O N 



k 



OF SA- 

 VAGES'. 



PROGRESS which would, in time, become a great improvement to their me- 



r 



i 



chanical employments ; but as thofe tools which we procured for 

 them were by no means in fiifficient number, that every man 

 might be provided with a compleat fet, the changes which they 

 have produced, are, as yet, very inconfiderable j nay, as thefe hies 



H 



•have no productions, which might tempt any European nation to 

 fet on foot a regular and conftant navigation to them ; it is proba- 

 bje, that in a few years tliey will be entirely neglected ; if therefore 



■ 



the iron tools imported, had been fo numerous, that every man 



1 -* 



could have had his fliai-e, the natives would have entirely laid afide 

 their own ftone hatchets, ftone chiiTels, and other implements, 

 and would, perhaps, by length of time, have forgotten the manner 

 of making them. This circumftance, muft of courfe, have be- 

 come very diilreffing to them ; ufed to our tools, without poiTeiT- 

 ing the art of making them, or the flill greater art of procuring 

 iron, from whence they might be manufadured, and having laid 



afide and fo 



the method of formino: their fubftitutes of 



O 



ftone, they would, inflead of being improved, have been th 

 back feveral ages in 



the 



own 



impr 



We did not com- 



municate intellecftual, moral, or focial improvements to the natives 

 of the illes ; nor could thefe be expe(Iled from the crew of a man 

 of war I thofe who might be deemed capable of enlarging their 



mind$ with new ideas relative to fcience, arts and manufadures, of 



r 



inflilling 



