»774-
N ovember. Peeterre partook with peculiar good manners, confidering
liis education. It is fcarce to be doubted, that he felt the
fuperiority of our knowledge, of our arts, manufactures,
and mode of living, in fome degree, efpeeially as he was
always remarkably in good fpirits when amongft us ; but
notwithftanding all this, he never once exprefled a defire of
going with u s ; and when we propofed it to him, he declined
it, preferring the wretched precarious life of his
countrymen, to all the advantages of which he faw us
poffefled. I have already mentioned in another place *, that
this way of ~ thinking is common to all favages ; and I
might have added, that it is not entirely obliterated among
poliflied nations. The force of habit no where appears
more ftrikingly than in fuch inftances, where it feems alone
to counterbalance the comforts of a civilized life.
Peeterre returned on fhore with his comrades in the
evening, but came to fell us fifli again the next day. We
frequently heard him and the reft of the natives finging on
Ihore, and were fometimes favoured with a fong when they
vifited us on board. Their mufic is far fuperior in variety
to that of the Society and Friendly Iflands; and if any nation
of the South Sea comes in competition with them in this
refpeft, I ihould apprehend it to be that of Tanna. The
fame intelligent friend who favoured me with a fpecimen erf
* See p* 53,
the
the fongs at Tonga-Tabboo, (fee vol. I. p. 429), ^as hkewife November.
obligingly communicated to me another of the New Zee-
land mufic, which will be fufficient to give an idea of the
tafte of the people. He did not vifit the ifland of Tanna,
but allured me that there appeared to be fome difplay of
genius in the New Zeeland tunes, which foared very far
above the wretched humming of the Taheitian, or even the
four notes of the people at the Friendly Iflands..
Of this tune they continue to fing the two firft bars till
the words of their fong are- at- an end, and then they clofe
with the laft. Sometimes they alfo fing an under-part, which
is is a third lower, except the two laft notes, which are ■-
unifons.
The fame gentleman likewife took notice of a kind of
dirge-like melancholy fong, relating to the death of Tupaya.
This fong was chiefly pradtifed by • the inhabitants round
Tolaga Bay, on the northern ifland, where the people feem
to have had a high regard for that Taheitian. There is an
extreme fimplicity in the words,-though they feem to be
metrically
y