POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 163 
other fruit ready plucked and prepared, I hesitated,— 
not because I believed it would be in itself sinful, but 
lest my attendants should notice it, and do so too, and 
it should become a general practice with the people to 
go to their gardens, and gather fruit to eat on the 
Sabbath, which would be very unfavourable to the 
proper observance of that sacred day. 
Their inquiries referred not only to historical, bio¬ 
graphical, and other facts connected with the sacred 
volume, but to those relating to other nations of the 
earth. The extent of territory, number of inhabitants, 
colour, language, religion, of the diflFerent countries of 
whom they had heard from occasional visiters, were 
topics of conversation at these meetings, together with 
the efforts of Christians to propagate the gospel among 
them. But the most interesting of these, referred to 
England; and although their recollections of Captain 
Cook were generally more indistinct, and very different 
from those entertained by the Sandwich Islanders, he 
was often alluded to; and we were asked, if any mem¬ 
bers of his family still survived, and whether they would 
ever come to the islands. The cities, towns, houses, 
carriages, dress, and manners of the English, the royal 
state of king George, the numbers in his army, the evo¬ 
lutions of his troops, the laws of the kingdom, the 
punishment of crimes, the principles of commerce, and 
the extent and variety of manufactures, were at different 
times brought forward. 
Numbers of the natives had indeed visited England, 
but their observation had been so limited, or their ac¬ 
counts so contradictory and exaggerated, that their 
countrymen knew not what to believe, and not unfre- 
quently, when any of these had returned, the substance 
