Laperouse At Once Conceived
An Attachment For O'Higgins, "A Man Of Extraordinary Activity," And One
"Adored In The Country."
In April, 1786, the expedition was at Easter Island, where the
inhabitants appeared to be a set of cunning and
Hypocritical thieves,
who "robbed us of everything which it was possible for them to carry
off." Steering north, the Sandwich Islands were reached early in May.
Here Laperouse liked the people, "though my prejudices were
strong against them on account of the death of Captain Cook." A passage
in the commander's narrative gives his opinion on the annexation of the
countries of native races by Europeans, and shows that, in common with
very many of his countrymen, he was much influenced by the ideas of
Rousseau, then an intellectual force in France -
"Though the French were the first who, in modern times, had landed on
the island of Mowee, I did not think it my duty to take possession in
the name of the King. The customs of Europeans on such occasions are
completely ridiculous. Philosophers must lament to see that men, for no
better reason than because they are in possession of firearms and
bayonets, should have no regard for the rights of sixty thousand of
their fellow creatures, and should consider as an object of conquest a
land fertilised by the painful exertions of its inhabitants, and for
many ages the tomb of their ancestors. These islands have fortunately
been discovered at a period when religion no longer serves as a pretext
for violence and rapine.
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