where they remained a whole month, employed in laying in provisions, and in making observations on the character of the country and its inhabitants. They found the New-Zealanders a race differing in many respects from the natives of all the surrounding islands. Cannibalism of the most revolting kind flourished here in all its glory. The first thought of a man on beholding the face of a fellow-creature, like Fontenelle's on seeing a flock of sheep in a meadow, was what nice eating he would make; and if they abstained from devouring their neighbours as well as their enemies, it was merely from fear of reprisals. Yet, united with propensities which, if found to be ineradicable, would justify their extermination, these people are said to possess a vehement affection for their friends, constancy in their attachments, and a strong disposition to love. It is very possible that both their good and bad qualities may have been misrepresented. The views and feelings of savages are not easily comprehended, and it is seldom that those who enjoy opportunities of observing them possess the genius to divine, from a few flitting and often constrained manifestations of them, the secret temper of the soul.
During their stay at this island one of the mariners formed an attachment for a young female cannibal; and, in order to wind himself the more effectually into her affections, he secretly caused himself to be tattooed, resolving, when the ships should sail, to make his escape, and relapse into the savage state with his mistress. I say relapse, because from that state we rose, and, whenever we can slip through the artificial scaffolding upon which we have been placed by philosophy and civil government, to that state we inevitably return. These two lovers, though deprived of the aids which language affords in the communication of thought and sentiments, contrived thoroughly to understand each other. When the time for the departure of the ships arrived,
