food, to find them often treated with a degree of harfhnefs, 
or rather brutality, which one would fcarcely fuppofe a man 
would bellow, on an objedt for whom he had the lead; af¬ 
fection. Nothing, however, is more common, than to fee 
the men heat them without mercy; and, unlefs this treat¬ 
ment is the effedt of jealoufy, which both fexes, at leaf:, 
pretend to be fometimes infeCled with, it will be difficult to 
account for it. It will be lefs difficult to admit this as the 
motive, as I have feen feveral inltances where the women 
have preferred perfonal beauty to intereft; though I mull 
own, that, even in thefe cafes, they feem fcarcely fufceptible 
of thofe delicate fentiments that are the refult of mutual af- 
feCtion; and, I believe, that there is lefs Platonic love in 
Otaheite than in any other country. 
Cutting or inciding the fore-lkin Ihould be mentioned 
here as a practice adopted amonglt them, from a notion of 
cleanlinefs; and they have a reproachful epithet in their 
language, for thofe who do not obferve that cuftom. When 
there are five or fix lads pretty well grown up in a neigh¬ 
bourhood, the father of one of them goes to a Tahoua , or 
man of knowledge, and lets him know. He goes with the 
lads to the top of the hills, attended by a fervant; and, 
mere accident; and, when combined with the fpecimens of affinity of language men¬ 
tioned at the beginning of this note, it Ihould feem, that we are fully warranted, from pre- 
mifes thus unexceptionable, to draw a certain conclufion, that the inhabitants of the 
various iflands difcovered or vifited by Captain Cook, in the South Pacific Ocean, and 
thofe whom the Spaniards found fettled upon the Ladrones or Mariannes, in the Northern 
hemifphere, carried the fame language, cuftoms, and opinions, from one common centre, 
from which they had emigrated; and that, therefore, they may be confidered as fcattered 
members of the fame nation. 
See Pere le Gobien’s Hijloiredes Ijles Mariannes , Book ii. or the fummary of it in Hif~ 
toire des Navigations aux Terres Aujirales , T. ii. p. 492—512, from which the materials 
for this note have been ex traded, 
VOL. II. 
Y 
featine 
