He Adds Also, That They Gave Him A Very Distinct Account
Of The Neighbouring Islands, And That They Solicited Him To Fire
Upon The Arimoans, With Whom It Seems They Are Always At War; Which,
However, He Refused To Do, Unless Provoked To It By Some Injury
Offered By Those People.
It is therefore very apparent that the
inhabitants of Moa are a people with whom any Europeans, settled in
Their neighbourhood, might without any difficulty settle a commerce,
and receive considerable assistance from them in making discoveries.
But perhaps some nations are fitter for these kind of expeditions
than others, as being less apt to make use of their artillery and
small arms upon every little dispute; for as the inhabitants of Moa
are well enough acquainted with the superiority which the Europeans
have over them, it cannot be supposed that they will ever hazard
their total destruction by committing any gross act of cruelty upon
strangers who visit their coast; and it is certainly very unfair to
treat people as savages and barbarians, merely for defending
themselves when insulted or attacked without cause. The instance
Captain Tasman gives us of their delivering up the man who wounded
his sailor is a plain proof of this; and as to the diffidence and
suspicion which some later voyagers have complained of with respect
to the inhabitants of this island, they must certainly be the
effects of the bad behaviour of such Europeans as this nation have
hitherto dealt with, and would be effectually removed, if ever they
had a settled experience of a contrary conduct.
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