xliv 



tions almost disappear amid the stupendous 

 display of wild and gigantic nature. The 

 human race here presents but a few rem- 

 nants of indigenous hordes, slightly ad- 

 vanced in civilization ; or that uniformity 

 of manners and institutions, which has been 

 transplanted by European colonists to 

 foreign shores. What relates therefore to 

 the history of our species, to the various 

 forms of government, to the monuments 

 of the arts, to those places which are full 

 of great remembrances, affect us far more 

 than the descriptions of those vast solitudes, 

 which seem destined only for the display 

 of vegetable life, and to form the domain 

 of wild animals. The savages of America, 

 who have been the object of so many syste- 

 matic reveries, and on whom Mr. Volney 

 has lately published some highly just and 

 sagacious observations, inspire less interest, 

 since celebrated navigators have made 

 known to us the inhabitants of the islands 

 of the South Sea, in whose character we 

 find so striking a mixture of perversity and 

 meekness. The state of half-civilization, 

 in which those islanders are found, gives a 



