HORROR OF SAVAGE WAR. 293 
murderous, unrelenting war, is the delight of 
savages; and among no portion of the most cruel 
and warlike of the human race has it perhaps pre¬ 
vailed more extensively, or proved a greater 
scourge, than among the interesting inhabitants of 
the islands of the Pacific. With the Society and 
Sandwich Islanders, it has, since the introduction 
of Christianity, ceased. In the Friendly, Figi, 
and other groups, it still prevails : in the Mar¬ 
quesas, and New Zealand, it rages with unabated 
violence, and spreads devastation and wretchedness 
among the infatuated and hapless people. 
Among the Society Islanders, in consequence 
of the influence of the climate, luxurious mode of 
living, and effeminacy of character induced 
thereby, the obstinacy and the continuance of 
actual combat were not equal to that which 
obtained in other tribes; yet we learn from the 
frequency of its occurrence, and the deadly hatred 
which was cherished, that the passion for war was 
not less powerful with them than with the New 
Zealander or the Marquesian; and its consequent 
cruelties and demoralization were perhaps un¬ 
equalled in any other part of the world. Their 
wars were most merciless and destructive. Inven¬ 
tion itself was tortured to find out new modes of 
inflicting suffering; and the total extermination 
of their enemies, with the desolation of a country, 
was often the avowed object of the war. This 
design, horrid as it is, has been literally accom¬ 
plished : every inhabitant of an island, excepting 
the few that may have escaped by flight in their 
canoes, has been slaughtered ; the bread-fruit 
trees have been cut down, and left to rot; the 
cocoa-nut trees have been killed by cutting off 
their tops or crown, and leaving the stems in 
