MORAL CHARACTER. 95 
love of indolence, fostered by the warmth of the 
climate, and the fertility of the soil. 
The moral character of the South Sea Islanders, 
though more fully developed than their intellectual 
capacity, often presents the most striking contra¬ 
dictions. Their hospitality has, ever since their 
discovery, been proverbial, and cannot be ex¬ 
ceeded. It is practised alike by all ranks, and 
is regulated only by the means of the individual 
by whom it is exercised. A poor man feels him¬ 
self called upon, when a friend from a distance 
visits his dwelling, to provide an entertainment for 
him, though he should thereby expend every article 
of food he possessed; and he would generally divide 
his fish or his bread-fruit with any one, even a 
stranger, who should be in need, or who should 
ask him for it. 
I am willing to afford them every degree of 
credit for the exercise of this amiable disposition ; 
yet, when it is considered that a guest is not enter¬ 
tained day after day at his friend’s table, but that 
after one large collection of food has been pre¬ 
sented, the visitor must provide for himself, while 
the host frequently takes but little further concern 
about him—we are induced to think, that the force 
of custom is as powerful in its influence on his 
mind, as that of hospitality. In connexion with 
this, it should be recollected, that for every such 
entertainment, the individual expects to be reim¬ 
bursed in kind, whenever he may visit the abode of 
his guest. Their ancient laws of government, also, 
imperiously required the poor industrious land¬ 
holder, or farmer, to bring forth the produce of his 
garden or his field for the use of the chiefs, or the 
wandering and licentious Areois, whenever they 
might halt at his residence ; and more individuals 
