- E.
[2] The Following Remarks Ought Not To Be Omitted.
- "Besides fish and
vegetable food, these people have dogs which live upon fish, and are
reckoned excellent meat by the natives of the Society Islands, to whom
they are known.
Thus Providence, in its wise dispensations, made even
those insignificant narrow ledges rich enough in the productions of
nature, to supply a whole race of men with the necessaries of life.
And here we cannot but express our admiration, that the minutest
agents are subservient to the purposes of the Almighty Creator. The
coral is known to be the fabric of a little worm, which enlarges its
house, in proportion as its own bulk increases. This little creature,
which has scarce sensation enough to distinguish it from a plant,
builds up a rocky structure from the bottom of a sea too deep to be
measured by human art, till it readies the surface, and offers a firm
basis for the residence of man! The number of these low islands is
very great, and we are far from being acquainted with them all. In the
whole extent of the Pacific Ocean, between the tropics, they are to be
met with; however, they are remarkably frequent for the space of ten
or fifteen degrees to the eastward of the Society Islands. Quiros,
Schouten, Roggewein, Byron, Wallis, Carteret, Bougainville, and Cook,
have each met with new islands in their different courses; and what is
most remarkable, they have found them inhabited at the distance of two
hundred and forty leagues to the east of Otaheite.
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