Sunday 7. 



310 AVOYAGETOTHE 



^ xi\f ^" ^^^^y remained five days. He faid they were fKips from 

 > — -- — ' Britania, and in the two had fifteen women and eight 

 odober. children on board, and defcribed them as European women. 

 This I looked on as a ftrange account ; and well knowing 

 that thefe people are very apt to invent flories, I gave no credit 

 to that part oi the account refpeding the women and chil- 

 dren being on board : the reft might poflibly be true, 

 though one improbable circumftance rendered the whole 

 doubtful and fufpicious ; for though there feems to be a kind 

 ofpropenfity generally prevailing among thefe people to in- 

 vent and contrive reports, with a viewtopleafe and oblige, yet 

 there is another quality which feems the moft predominant 

 in them of all others, and which is always vilible in thofe 

 who are vefted with any degree of authority or power, or 

 are anyways elevated or exalted to a ftation fuperior to 

 their neighbours; for arrogance, infolence, and voracity, 

 are the diftinguifliing properties by which their inferiors 

 are taught to dread them, and be awed into the moft 

 fubmiflive obedience to their commands, however oppo- 

 fite to their eafe, intereft, or fafcty; infomuch that I have 

 fecn a confidcrable chief at Woahoo fit in his canoe along:- 

 fide, without an article for fale himfelf, and watch a 

 poor fellow that had perhaps paddled from the oppofite 

 fide of the ifland with all his family, and perhaps all thtir 

 wcr dly property and fubftance ; fuch as two or three pigs, 

 a few plantains, pieces ot cloth, and feme bread-fruit ; 

 and after felling their little cargo, and getting for it a few 

 bits of iron and feme little trinkets, things (the iron in 

 particular) r hat are ineftimable to them ; that greedy and 

 tyrannical chief hath jumped out of his canoe into the 

 water, fwam to the poor man,, and demanded of liim 

 every article which he had feen him receive, which was 



inftantlv 



