15° 
A VOYAGE TO 
1777. preifed a diilike to our complicated compolitiotis, yet were 
Dcccmben t p e y a ] wa y S delighted with the more melodious founds pro- ' 
duced fingly on our inftruments, as approaching nearer to 
the ftmplicity of their own. 
Neither are they ftrangers to the foothing effe£ts pro¬ 
duced by particular forts of motion; which, in fome cafes, 
feem to allay any perturbation of mind, with as much fuc- 
cefs as muiic. Of this, I met with a remarkable inftance. 
For on walking, one day, about Matavai Point, where our 
tents were erected, I faw a tnan paddling, in a fmall canoe, 
fo quickly, and looking about with fuch eagernefs, on each 
tide, as to command all my attention. At firft, I imagined 
that he had ftolen fomething from one of the fhips, and 
was purfued ; but, on waiting patiently, faw him repeat his 
amufement. He went out from the fhore, till he was near 
the place where the fwell begins to take its rife; and, 
watching its firft motion very attentively, paddled before it, 
with great quicknefs, till he found that it overtook him, and 
had acquired fufficient force to carry his canoe before it, 
without palling underneath. He then fat motionlefs, and 
was carried along, at the fame fwift rate as the wave, till it 
landed him upon the beach. Then he ftarted out, emptied 
his canoe, and went in fearch of another fwell. I could not 
help concluding, that this man felt the moft fupreme plea- 
fure, while he was driven on, fo faft and fo fmoothly, by the 
lea; efpecially as, though the tents and fhips were fo near, 
he did not feem, in the leaft, to envy, or even to take any 
notice of, the crowds of his countrymen collected to view 
them as objects which were rare and curious. During my 
ftay, two or three of the natives came up, who feemed to 
lhare his felicity, and always called out, when' there was 
an appearance of a favourable fwell, as he fometimes miff¬ 
ed 
