THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
137 
it may be too late to go back to their old lefs perfedl con¬ 
trivances, which they now defpife, and have difcontinued, ^ 
lince the introduction of ours. For by the time that the 
iron tools, of which they are now poflefled, are worn out, 
they will have almoft loll the knowledge of their own. A 
ftone hatchet is, at prefent, as rare a thing amongft them, 
as an iron one was eight years ago; and a chiflel of bone, 
or ftone, is not to be feen. Spike nails have fupplied the 
place of thefe laft; and they are weak enough to fancy, that 
they have got an inexhauftible ftore of them; for thefe were 
not now at all fought after. Sometimes, however, nails, 
much fmaller than a fpike, would ftill be taken in exchange 
for fruit. Knives happened, at prefent, to be in great efteem 
at Ulietea; and axes and hatchets remained unrivalled by 
any other of our commodities, at all the illands. With re- 
fpeCt to articles of mere ornament, thefe people are as 
changeable as any of the polifhed nations of Europe; fo 
that what pleafes their fancy, while a fafhion is in vogue, 
may be rejected, when another whim has fupplanted it. 
But our iron tools, are fo ftrikingly ufeful, that they will, 
we may confidently pronounce, continue to prize them 
highly; and be completely miferable, if, neither poftefling 
the materials, nor trained up to the art of fabricating them, 
they fhould ceafe to receive fupplies of what may now be 
confidered as having become neceftary to their comfortable 
exiftence. 
Otaheite, though not comprehended in the number of 
what we have called the Society Iflands, being inhabited by 
the fame race of men, agreeing in the fame leading fea¬ 
tures of charadter and manners, it was fortunate, that we 
happened to difcover this principal ifland before the others; 
as the friendly and hofpitable reception we there met with, 
Vol. II. T of 
1777* 
December. 
i 
