PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
225 
it would have been good policy to sanction these diversions under CFIAP. 
certain restrictions, until laws which were more important began 
to sit easy on the shoulders of the people. Without amusements, ''a^hT^ 
and excessively indolent, they now seek enjoyment in idleness and 
sensuality, and too much pains cannot be bestowed to arouse them from 
their apathy, and to induce them to emerge from their general state 
of indifference to those occupations which are most essential to their 
welfare. Looking only to the past, they at present seem to consider 
that they can proceed in the same easy manner they have hitherto 
done ; forgetting that their wants, formerly gratified by the natural 
produce of the earth, have lately been supplied by foreign commodities, 
which, by indulgence, have become essential to their comfort ; and that 
as their wants increase, as in all probability they will, they will find 
themselves at a loss to meet the expenses of the purchase ; and that being 
dependant upon the casual arrival of merchant vessels, they are liable 
to be deprived of them suddenly by the occurrence of a war or of some 
other contingency, at a period perhaps when by disuse they will not have 
the power of falling back upon those which have been discontinued. 
The country is not deficient in productions adapted to commerce. 
The sugar-cane grows so luxuriantly that from two small enclosures five 
tons of white sugar are annually manufactured under the superintendence 
of an Englishman ; cotton has been found to succeed very well ; arrow- 
root of good quality is plentiful : they have some sandal-wood, and other 
ornamental woods suitable for furniture, and several dyes. Besides these, 
coffee and other grain might no doubt be grown, and they might saltdown 
meat, which, with other articles J have not mentioned, would constitute 
a trade quite sufficient to procure for the inhabitants the luxuries which 
are in a gradual course of introduction, and to make it desirable for 
merchant vessels to touch at the island. It is not from the poverty of 
the island, therefore, from which they are likely to feel inconvenience, 
but from their neglect to avail themselves of its capabilities, and employ 
its productions to advantage. 
It seemed as if the people never had these things revealed to 
them, or had sunk into an apathy, and were discouraged at finding 
each year burthened with new restrictions upon their liberties and enjoy- 
G G 
