that the interests of the expedition should in any
manner have suffered loss by the contention.
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.
It is not less remarkable, that, in spite of the drought
which prevails in their country, and the scanty
supply of vegetable food, they should have attained
to a greater size, and a more muscular body.
Perhaps, instead of placing the causes which effect
disparity of stature among various nations in
the difference of food, this instance ought to
teach us to have retrospect likewise to the original
races from which those tribes are descended, that
fell under our examination. Let us, for instance,
suppose, that the people of New Caledonia are
the offspring of a nation, who, by living in affluence
and in a genial climate, have not been stinted
in their growth; the colony which removed into
the barren soil of New Caledonia, will probably
preserve the habit of body of their ancestors for many
generations. The people of Tanna may have
undergone a contrary revolution, and being descended
of a slender and short race, like the Mallicollese,
the richness of their present country may not yet have
entirely taken effect. The inoffensive character
of the people of New Caledonia appears to great
advantage in their conduct towards us. They are
the only people in the South Seas who have not had
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