But Such Things, He Will Say, Are
Incident To Human Nature, And Have Frequently Taken Place On Even More
Important Occasions.
This is very true, but gives no comfort.
- E.
[4] Mr G.F. calls this deceptive amusement, "an innocent recreation,
which shewed them good-humoured, and not destitute of ingenuity!" He
agrees with Cook respecting the universal decency of these people,
which forms so striking a dissimilarity to the immodest conduct of the
other islanders met with in this voyage. The following remarks specify
other differences, and are worthy of being transcribed: - "It is easy
to be conceived, that the contrast between New Caledonia and the New
Hebrides, was very striking to us, who had so lately visited those
rich and fertile islands, where the vegetable kingdom glories in its
greatest perfection. The difference in the character of the people was
no less surprising. All the natives of the South-Sea islands,
excepting those only which Tasman found on Tonga-Tabboo and Annamocka,
(and those perhaps had been informed of what had passed between Le
Maire, and the natives of Horne, Cocos, and Traitor's island, some
years before,) made some attempt to drive away the strangers who came
to visit them. But the people of New Caledonia, at the first sight of
us, received us as friends; they ventured to come on board our ship,
without the least marks of fear or distrust, and suffered us to ramble
freely throughout their country as far as we pleased. As nature has
been so sparing here of her gifts, it is the more surprising that
instead of seeing the inhabitants savage, distrustful, and warlike, as
at Tanna, we should find them peaceable, well-disposed, and
unsuspicious.
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