33$ AN ACCOUNT' O F 
have- in this refpeCt, adopted a maxim which prevails 
among the Indian tribes in America, and in the numerous 
Hates of Africa (though the number of lives facrificed can 
never here be many) one hath only to lament that political 
necejjity hath (in common with a multitude of other un¬ 
civilized countries) thrown a fhade over thefe new-difco- 
vered iilands. 
It fhould be the caution of every writer, to endeavour to 
difarm criticifm, by meeting objections that may be made. 
—After the good difpofitions which the people of Pelew 
have been feen to poffefs, it may pofllbly be faid, they 
were addicted to pilfering when opportunity offered; a 
cenfure which many, I believe, have thought has been 
too feverelv paffed on the poor inhabitants of the fouth- 
ern ocean.—But in the Pelew iflands, it was never done 
but by thofe of the low'eft clafs; and whenever complaint 
was made of any thing being taken clandeftinely away, 
the King, as well as his Chiefs, confidered it as a breach 
of hofpitality, nor could their indignant fpirits reft till 
the article purloined was fearched for, and if found, re¬ 
ft or ed.—Should fome Eajlern Prince, magnificently deco¬ 
rated, accidentally, as he paffed along, drop a diamond from 
his robe, and were a poor peafant (who knew how great an 
acquifition it was) purfuing the fame track, to fee it fparkling 
in the duft, where is that refiftance, that felf-denial, which 
would go on and leave it untouched ?—A nail—a tool—or a 
bit 
