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As to the people they are of the largest fize of Europeans. The men are lall, strong, well-limbed, and finely shaped. The tallest that we saw was a man upon a neighbouring ifland, called HuaHEINE, who measured fix feet three inches and an half. The women of the fuperior rank are alfo in general above our middle ftature, but thofe of the inferior clafs are rather below it, and fome of them are very fmall. This defect in fize, probably proceeds from their early commerce with men, the only thing in which they differ from their fuperiors, that could poffibly affect their growth.

Their natural complexion is that kind of clear olive, or Brunette, which many people in Europe prefer to the finest white and red. In thofe that are expofed to the wind and fun, it is confiderably deepened; but in others that live under fhelter, efpecially the fuperior clafs of women, it continues of its native hue, and the fkin is most delicately fmooth and foft; they have no tint in their cheeks, which we diftinguish by the name of colour. The fhape of the face is comely, the cheek bones are not high, neither are the eyes hollow, nor the brow prominent: the only feature that does not correfpond with our ideas of beauty is the. nose, which, in general, is fomewhat flat; but their eyes, especially thofe of the women, are full of expreflion, fometimes fparkling with fire, and fometimes melting with foftnefs; their teeth alio are, almost without exception, most beautifully even and white, and their breath perfectly without taint.

The hair is almoft univerfally black, and rather coarfe; the men have beards which they wear in many fashions, always, how ever, plucking out great part of them, and keeping the rest per fectly clean and neat. Both fexes alfo eradicate every hair from onder their arms, and accused us of great uncleanliness for not doing the fame. In their motions there is at once vigour and ease; their walk is graceful, their deportment liberal, and their behaviour to ftrangers and to each other affable and courteous. In their difpofitions alfo, they feemed to be brave, open, and candid, without either. fufpicion or treachery, cruelty or revenge; fo that we placed the fame confidence in them as in our best friends, many of us, particularly Mr. Banks, fleeping frequently in their houses in the woods, without a companion, and confequently wholly in their power.'

< They have a cuftom of ftaining their bodies, nearly in the fame manner as is practifed in many other parts of the world, which they call Tattorving. They prick the skin, fo as juft not to fetch blood, with a fmall inftrument, fomething in the form of a hoe; that part which answers to the blade is made of a bone or thell, scraped very thin, and is from a quarter of an inch to an inch and a half wide; the edge is cut into fharp teeth or points, from the number of three to twenty, according to its fize: when this is to be used, they dip the teeth into a mixture of a kind of lamp-black, formed of the imoke that rifes from an oily nut which they burn instead of candles, and water; the teeth, thus prepared, are placed upon the skin,, and the handle to which they are faftened being ftruck, by quick fmart blows, with a flick fitted to the purpofe, they pierce it, and at the fame time carry into the puncture the black compofition, which leaves an indelible ftain. The operation is painful, and it is fome days before the wounds are healed. It is performed upon the youth of both fexes when they are about twelve or four.. teen years of age, on several parts of the body, and in various figures,

figures, according to the fancy of the parent, or perhaps the rank of the party. The women are generally marked with this ftain, in the form of a Z, on every joint of their fingers and toes, and frequently round the outfide of their feet: the men are alfo marked with the fame figure; and both men and women have fquares, circles, crefcents, and ill-defigned reprefentations of men, birds, or dogs, and various other devices impreffed upon their legs and arms, fome of which we are told had fignifications, though we could never learn what they were. But the part on which thefe ornaments are lavished with the greatest profufion, is the breech: this, in both fexes, is covered with a deep black; above which, arches are drawn one above another as high as the fhort ribs. They are often a quarter of an inch broad, and the edges are not ftrait lines, but indented. These arches are their pride, and are fhewn both by men and women with a mixture of oftentation and pleafure; whether as an ornament, or a proof of their fortitude and resolution in bearing pain, we could not determine."

The great particularity in the manners of this people' is their having annexed no idea of indecency or fhame to the commerce of the fexes, to nakedness, or to naming any part of the body in common difcourfe. They publicly gratify their venereal appetite with as little reftraint from modefty as is felt in fatiating thofe of hunger or thirft. With all this fimplicity of behaviour the inhabitants of Otaheite are remarkably addicted to theft, fo that fcarce a day paffed without some infance of their propenfity to this practice.

Captain Cook obferves, however, that they certainly feel the force of moral obligation, and that we ought not hastily conclude that theft is a teftimony of the fame depravity in them that it is in us, in the inftances in which our people were fufferers by their dif honesty; for their temptation was fuch, as to furmount would be confidered as a proof of uncommon integrity among those who have more knowledge, better principles, and stronger motives to refift the temptations of illicit advantage: an Indian among penny knives and beads, or even nails and broken glafs, is in the fame ftate of trial with the meanest fervant in Europe among unlocked coffers of jewels and gold.'

The fituation of this island, the amazing falubrity of the climate, the fertility of the foil, and above all, the character of the inhabitants, pointed it out as the moft proper ftation from whence navigators might profecute refearches in every part of the Pacific Ocean. From the uniform tenor of the voyages, it appears, that the great defign has been difcovery; and it is obfervable, that thofe which proved leaft successful in this point, failed thro' want of a place to refit and refresh at in this part of the ocean. A fmall fort, with a garrifon of a company, under a difcreet officer, with fome feamen, afloop or two, and proper ftores. for refitting fhips, would enfure fuccefs to fucceeding voyages, and might prove the means of opening a market for various articles of British manufacture.

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On the 13th of July, the voyagers left Otaheite, amid the rears of many of the inhabitants, who regretted their departure. From the Society Ifles, captain Cook fteered due fouth in fearch of a fouthern continent, and on the 6th of October made New Zealand; in coatting which, they had fome opportunities of making obfervations on the country and its inhabitants.

In failing along the fuore, fays the captain, we faw the natives affembled in great numbers as well upon Portland and as the main: we could also distinguish feveral fpots of ground that were cultivated; fome feemed to be fresh turned up, and lay in furrows like ploughed land, and fome had plants upon them in different stages of their growth.'

At another place,

Mr. Banks faw fome of their plantations, where the ground was as well broken down and tilled as even in the gardens of the moft curious people among us: in thefe fpots were fweet potatoes, coccos or eddas, which are well known and much efteemed both in the Eaft and Weft Indies, and fome gourds: the fweet potatoes were planted in fmall hills, fome ranged in rows, and others in quincunx, all laid by a line with the greatest regularity: the coccos were planted upon flat land, but none of them yet appeared above ground; and the gourds were fet in small hollows, or dishes, snuch as in England. Thefe plantations were of different extent from one or two acres to ten: taken together, there appeared to be from 150 to 200 acres in cultivation in the whole bay, though we never faw an hundred people. Each district was fenced in, gene. rally with reeds, which were placed fo clofe together that there was fcarcely room for a mouse to creep between.'.

In perfonal delicacy they were not equal to our friends at Otaheite, for the coldness of the climate did not invite them fo of ten to bathe; but we faw among them one instance of cleanliness in which they exceeded them, and of which perhaps there is no example in any other Indian nation. Every houfe, or every little cluster of three or four houfes, was furnifhed with a privy, fo that the ground was every where clean. The offals of their food, and other litter, were alfo piled up in regular dunghills, which probably they made ufe of at a proper time for manure."

All these circumstances indicate a people of whom we want nothing but a farther knowledge to pronounce them far from being favages. So correct an agriculture is rarely found even in the beft cultivated parts of Europe; and the enclosure of their fields thews what progrefs they have made in the inftitutes of civil fociety.

About Tolago bay, the ridges of thefe hills produce little be fides fern; but the fides are most luxuriantly clothed with wood, and verdure of various kinds, with little plantations intermixed. In the woods; we found trees of above twenty different forts, and carried fpecimens of each on board; but there was no body among us to whom they were not altogether unknown. The tree which

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We cut for firing was fomewhat like our maple, and yielded a whitish gum. We found another fort of it of a deep yellow, which we thought might be ufeful in dying. We found alfo one cab bage tree, which we cut down for the cabbages. The country abounds with plants, and the woods with birds, in an endless va riety, exquifitely beautiful, and of which none of us had the leaft knowledge. The foil both of the hills and valleys is light and fandy, and very fit for the production of all kinds of roots; though we faw none except fweet potatoes and yams.'

How much is it to be regretted, that of fo great a variety of productions, this work, ufhered into the world with fuch pompous circumstances, should contain neither description nor plates!

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New Zealand, from all the circumftances related by this navigator, appears to be a very fine, fertile, and important country, notwithstanding the voyagers obferved no marks of its producing either gold, pearls, or fpices. The timber in particular is excellent, and feems to grow in great abundance. For the Endeavour's boat went feveral miles up the river which they called the Thames, and obferved the banks every where adorned with lofty trees.

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Before we had walked an hundred yards into the wood, we met with one of them which was nineteen feet eight inches in the girt, at the height of fix feet above the ground: having a quadrant with me, I measured its height from the root to the first branch, and found it to be eighty-nine feet: it was as ftraight as an arrow, and tapered but very little in proportion to its height; fo that E judged there were three hundred and fifty-fix feet of folid timber in it, exclufive of the branches. As we advanced, we faw many others that were still larger; we cut down a young one, and the wood proved heavy and folid, not fit for mafts, but fuch as would make the finest plank in the world. Our carpenter, who was with us, faid that the timber resembled that of the pitch pine, which is light ened by tapping; and poffibly fome fuch method might be found to lighten these, and they would then be fuch mafts as no country in Europe can produce."

Coafting the island with our voyagers we presently meet with an opportunity of applauding the liberal behaviour of the captain.

"In the mean time, fays he, fome of our people, who, when the Indians were to be punished for a fraud, affumed the inexorable juftice of a Lycurgus, thought fit to break into one of their plantations, and dig up fome potatoes: for this offence I ordered each of them to be punished with twelve lathes, after which two of them were discharged; but the third, infifting that it was no crime in an Englishman to plunder an Indian plantation, though it was a crime in an Indian to defraud an Englishman of a nail, I ordered bim back into his confinement, from which I would not release him till He had received fin lafhes more."

How

How oppofite this conduct to that of the Spaniards at the invafion of Mexico! Such inftances of British humanity and juftice, in vindicating the natural rights of mankind, are more honourable to the nation than the diftinction which arifes only from fuperiority in arms.

In all the transactions which the ship's company had with the New Zealanders, the latter appeared very ingenious, and better skilled in useful manufactures than could well have been ima gined. In the Bay of Islands, where the voyagers could catch no fish, the natives fold them plenty.

When we fhewed the natives our feine, which is fuch as the king's fhips are generally furnished with, they laughed at it, and in triumph produced their own, which was indeed of an enormous fize, and made of a kind of grafs, which is very ftrong; it was five fathom deep, and by the room it took up, it could not be lefs than three or four hundred fathom long."

This grafs is a curious production, and would probably be found much to exceed our flax.

The most remarkable circumftance in the manners of this people is their feeding on the flesh of their enemies killed in battle, a fact which was afcertained by our author beyond the poffibility of doubt.

[ To be concluded in our next. 1

VI. Remarks on an Enquiry into the Connection between the present Price of Provifions, and the Size of Farms. By John Lewis. 8vo. 6d. Longman.

TH

'HE general fuppofitions that the high price of provisions is owing to the monopoly of farms, which feveral pamphleteers have written so much about, is now confidered by well informed perfons as a mere vulgar error.

The author of the Inquiry has proved, that large farms were more advantageous than fmall ones; but Mr. Lewis is not convinced, and in the pamphlet before us attempts a refutation of that doctrine; and ftates the heads of his doctrine in these words: In fmall farms, great part of the business being done by the farmer and his family, there is a confiderable faving on that account; when in large ones all is to be paid for cut of the produce of the lands and what is thus earned in the fmall farms is not the only advantage in their favour for they being interested in the fuccefs, it will be done by them with more care; and all improvements of the lands, as well as the dairy, pigs, poultry, will be more minutely and carefully attended to; as in great farms the dairy, pigs, and poul try, are feldom carried further than juft for their own ufe."

Reafor

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