THE PELEW ISLANDS. 
289 
might enable them to examine with judgment objedfs which 
prefented themfelves, or trace nature through all her laby¬ 
rinths.—Diftrefs threw them on thefe iflands, and when 
there, every thought was folely occupied on the means of 
getting away, and liberating themfelves from a foliation of 
all others the moft horrible to the imagination, that of 
being cut off for ever from the fociety of the reft of the 
world. 
Forlorn and melancholy as their lot at firft appeared, the 
gloom it caft over them w~as foon difpelled, by finding them¬ 
felves amongft an humane race of men, who were fuperior 
to the wifli of taking any advantage of their diftrefs ; who 
had hearts to feel for what our people fuffered ; benevo¬ 
lence to relieve their immediate wants; and generofity to 
co-operate with them in every effort to work out their deli¬ 
verance.—The E7iglijh poffeffed what was in their eftimation 
of the higheft value—iron and arms. The Malay wreck had, 
for the firft time, thrown in their way a few pieces of the 
former; the life and power of the latter had only been dif- 
covered to them by the ill fortune of our countrymen.— 
Thefe objects, fo defirable to them, they might unqueftion- 
ably have poffeffed themfelves of, the number of our people, 
capable of bearing arms, being only twenty-feven, the Cap¬ 
tain and Surgeon included ; but their notions of moral rec¬ 
titude lay ds a barrier againft the intrufton of fuch a thought; 
P p -re- 
