But We Reserve The Subject Of Cannibalism
For Another Place, Where Perhaps It Will Be Shewn That Those Very
People Are Not Free From This Opprobrium Of The Savage State.
The
reader is already aware, that the younger Forster is not to be too
strictly relied on as to
His accounts of our species in its rude
condition, more particularly where it is possible, with some stretch
of liberality, to substitute the pleasing dreams of fancy for the
disagreeable realities of truth. - E.
SECTION IX.
A Description of the Country and its Inhabitants; their Manners,
Customs, and Arts.
I shall conclude our transactions at this place with some account of the
country and its inhabitants. They are a strong, robust, active, well-made
people, courteous and friendly, and not in the least addicted to pilfering,
which is more than can be said of any other nation in this sea. They are
nearly of the same colour as the natives of Tanna, but have better
features, more agreeable countenances, and are a much stouter race; a few
being seen who measured six feet four inches. I observed some who had thick
lips, flat noses, and full cheeks, and, in some degree, the features and
look of a negro. Two things contributed to the forming of such an idea;
first, their rough mop heads, and, secondly, their besmearing their faces
with black pigment. Their hair and beards are, in general, black. The
former is very much frizzled, so that, at first sight, it appears like that
of a negro.
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