3.26 R E M A R K S Vo n* ‘, t i i %"
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he found imtnenfe dores o f diy filh, férii4 roots, and other roots,
in houfes filled folely with thefe provifions.V It feems therefore,
to me, by no means probable, that a nation perfedly convinced
of the neceffity o f providing againd the feafon ' o f didrefs, and fo
very careful and adive in colleding dores o f eatables, Ihould
neverthelefs have been induced by neceffity and hunger, to
eat the porfes o f thofe Haiti in battle. . Nay, we heard from
the natives, that they never eat thofe, who die à natural death,
but either fink them in the fea, or bury them under ground : were
neceffity the true caufe o f this pudotn,. why flipuld they not feaft
upon the dead who formed the fame - community with them ?
But it will be objeded, that hunger may be allowed fp • far to difle
all fentimental feelings o f humanity, that they might fuffer them-
felves to fatisfy its cravings upon the corfe of a flain foe, but that
it will never carry them fo far as to feed upon the flelh o f thofe
who lived in the fame foçiety with them. How fpecious- foever
this objedion may be, it never can perfuade me that hunger will
make thefe nice didindibns, in a people, who have not thofe
tender, humane feelings and emotions, o f which we are capable,
in fo highly civilized a date, with a refined education, and principles
infinitely fuperior to theirs, *
But
* I f the account given in the life of Pierre V isud is to be credited ; for the credibility of
which, there are the greatefi: reafpns, founded upon the jotnt,teflimomes of fevcral refperiablc
perfons,
But I had reafon to believe, that all the nations o f the South Seas
were formerly cannibals, even in the moll happy and fertile climates,
where they Hill live upon the almoft fpontaneous fruits, though
their population be extremely great. T h e natives of Tanna gave
us more than once to underlland, that i f . we penetrated far into
the country againlt their will, and without their permiffion, they
would kill us, cut our bodies up, and eat them: when we pur-
pofely affeded to mifunderftand this lad part of their ftory, and
interpreted.it, as i f they were going . to give us fomething good
to eat, tfiey-convinced .us by ligns which could not be milinter-
preted, that they would tear with their teeth the flelh from our
arms and Iegs.it;.
In Mallicollo, we had likewife fome intimation that they were
cannibals: T h e Taheiteans frequently enumerated to us ifles inhabited
by men-eaters: for indance, they faid, that beyond
Tabuamanoo is a high ifland called Manua, whofe inhabitants
“ have but very few canoes, are ferocious, have wild and furious-
eyes, and eat men : ” nay, we were at lad told, that they them-
felves had formerly been <Tahedi% i. e. men-eaters. As the
inhabitants
perfons, anil o f fuch people who had no inducement to compliment, the author with their
tcftimonics ; it may ferve to prove Hill more the enormities, to which the rage o f hunger
may drive fome wretches; and it likewife (hews, how eafilv the more refined feelings, of
humanity are overcome, by the horrors o f unconquerable want.
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