o
Nov’imbk.; Our former conjedtures were now amply verified, our ap-
prehenfions that we were the innocent caufes of this difafi-
ter encreafed, and the exiftence of anthropophagi Confirmed
by another ftrong proof. Mr! Pickerfgill propofed to
purchafe the head, in order to preferve it till his return to
England, where it might ferve as a memorial of this
•voyage. He offered a nail, and immediately obtained the
head for this price f , after which he returned -on board
with his company, and placed it on the taffarel We
were all occupied in examining it;, when fome New
Zeelanders came on board from the watering-place. At
fight of the head they expreffed an ardent defire of poffeffing
• it fignifying by the moft intelligible geftures. that it was
delicious to the tafte. Mr. Pickerfgill refufed to part with
it, but agreed to cut off a frnall piece from, the cheek, with
which they feemed to be well fatisfied. He cut off the part
he had promifed, and offered it to them, but they would
not eat it raw, and made figns to. have it dreffed. Therefore,
in prefence of all the (hip’s company, it was broiled
over the fire.; after which they devoured it before-our eyes
with the greateft avidity. The captain arriving the moment
after with his company, the New Zeelanders repeated the
-experiment once more in his prefence. It operated very
t .T h e head is now deposited in the colledtion o f Mr, John Hunter, P ,
•* .The upper part o f the ilern«
firangely
Itrangely and differently on the beholders. Some there were noS bek.
who, in fpite of the abhorrence which our education infpires
againft the eating of human flelh, did not feem greatly dif-
inclined to feaft with them, and valued themfelves on the
brilliancy of their wit, while they compared their battle to
a hunting-match. On the contrary, others were fo unrea-
fonably incenfed againft the perpetrators of this affion, that
they declared they could be well pleafed to fhoot them all;
they were ready to become the moft deteftable butchers, in
order to punifh the imaginary crime of a people whom
they had no right to condemn. A few others fuffered the
fame effects as from a dofe o f ipecacuanha. The reft lamented
this adtion as a brutal depravation of human nature,
agreeably to the principles which they had imbibed.
But the fenfibility of Mahine, the young native of the Society
Iflands, (hone out with fuperior luftre among us. Born
and bred in a country where the inhabitants have already
emerged from the darknefs of barbarifm, and are united by
the bonds of fociety, this feene filled his mind with horror.
He turned his eyes from the unnatural objedt, and retired
into the cabin, to give vent to rhe emotions of his heart.
There we found him bathed in tears; his looks were a
mixture of compaflion and grief, and as foon as he faw us,
he expreffed his concern for the unhappy parents of the
vidtim. This turn which his reflections had taken, gave
us infinite pleafure , it fpoke a humane heart, filled with
,V ol. I. U u u the