PREFACE. 



Ixxiii 



Reviewer is distinguished above all others. Accord- 

 ingly Capt. Porter is set down among the wicked, 

 In that he occasionally talks about " nature in 

 that he once went on shore to amuse himself on 

 Sunday ; and in that he meddled with a Morai at 

 Nooaheevah. Capt. Cook, however, being, as the 

 Reviewer affirms, an example of high honour, gene- 

 rosity, humanity, and religion, must again help us 

 out of this woful predicament ! 



" Being much in want of fuel, Captain Cook 

 desired Mr. King to treat with the priests for the 

 purchase of the railing belonging to the Morai. 

 Mr. King had doubts respecting the decency of this 

 overture, and apprehended the proposal might be 

 deemed impious : but in this he was much mista- 

 ken ; for, on application being made for the same, 

 they expressed no kind of surprise, and the wood 

 was delivered without the least stipulation."^ The 

 author has not taken the trouble to collect the nu- 

 merous breaches of the Sabbath, in working, woo- 

 ing, whipping, and killing the natives ; nor the va- 

 rious instances of impiety in mentioning the word 

 " nature," to be found in Cook's voyages. That 

 task must be left to some future American Quar- 

 terly Reviewer, w^ho, when this country shall have 

 reached the glorious eminence in literature, mora- 

 lity and piety, now occupied by England, may 

 cloak his spleen, his venality, his hypocrisy, and his 

 bitterness of heart, under the broad and ample robe 

 of vituperation. The world is still the same, al- 

 though the outward skin is perpetually changing. 

 The priests who accompanied the pious conquerors, 

 destroyed the lives of thousands of the people of 

 South America, under the pretence of converting 

 them to the true faith— and the Quarterly Reviewer 



* Cook s Third Voyage, Colleclioii, p. 1949, vol. vi. 



VOL. r. 10 



