April' thofe of children they alfo appeared to be forgotten as
' - foon 35 > ° f which the following, among many others,
Friday 28. is a remarkable inftance. Very early in the morning of the
28th, even before it was day, a great number of them came
down to the fort, and Terapo being obferved among the women
on the outfide of the gate, Mr. Banks went out and
brought her in ; he faw that the tears then flood in her eyes
and as foon as fhe entered they began to flow in great abundance
: he enquired earneftly the caufe, but inftead o f anfwer-
ing fhe took from under her garment a fhark’s tooth, and
ftruck it fix or feven times into her head with great force •
a profufion o f blood followed, and fhe talked loud, but in a
mofl melancholy tone, for fome minutes; without at all regarding
his enquiries, which he repeated with flill more impatience
and concern, while the other Indians, to his great
furprize, talked and laughed, without taking the leafl notice
of her diftrefs. But her own behaviour wasftill more
extraordinary. As foon as the bleeding was over, fhe looked
up with a fmile, and began to collect fome fmall pieces of
Cloth, which during her bleeding fhe had thrown down to
catch the blood; as foon as fhe had picked them all up, fhe
carried them out o f the tent, and threw them into the fea
carefully difperfing them abroad, as i f fhe wifhed to prevent-
the fight of them from reviving the remembrance of what
fhe had done. Site then plunged into the river, and after
havmg wafhed her whole body, returned to the tents with
the fame gaiety and eheerfulnefs as. if- nothing had han
Dened. ^
It is not indeed ftrange that the forrows o.f thefe artlefs
people fhould be tranfient, any more than that their paflions
fhonld be fuddenly- and ftiongly exproffed: what they feel
they have never been taught either to difguife or ftipprefr
and having no habits of thinking which perpetually refcal
the paft, and anticipate the future, they are affected by all. t7®9-
the changes of the palling hour, and fefleâ: the colour of i--- ,—
0 _ , . , , Friday z8.
the time, however frequently it may vary: they have no
projet which: is to bepdrfued from day to day, the fubject
of unrein itted anxiety and folicitude, that firll rufhes into
the mind when they awake in the morning, and is laft dif-
mifTed when they fleep at night. Yet if we admit that they,
are upoii .the whole happier than we, we muff admit that
rite child is; happier than the man, and that we are lofers by
the perfection of our nature, the increafe of our knowlege,
and the enlargement o f our views.
CanctesWere continually’coming in during all this forenoon;
and the tents at the fort were crowded with people'of
both fexès from diffèrent parts of the Ifland. Î was niyfelf
bufy on board the fhip, but Mr. Mollineux, otir mailer, who-
was one o f thofe that made the laft voyage in the Dolphin,
went'on-fliore. As fèdri as he' entered Mr.'Barfks’s tent’he
fixed his eyes upon one of the women, Who Was fitting there
with great compofure aiïïohg the reft, and immediately de-:
dared her to be .the perfon who at that time was fuppol'Cd to
he Queen of the ifland ; fhe alfo, at the fathe time, acknowledging
him to be one of the Arrangers whom fhe had fèert
before. The attention of all prefent Was now diverted from
every other object, and wholly engaged in confidering a pér-
fbn who had made fo diftinguifhed a figure in the accounts
that had been given of this ifland by its firll difeoverers ? and
we foon learnr-that her- nathe Was Ob-eeea. She feUmed to-
be about forty years of age, and was not only tall, but of
a- large: make ; her fkin was white, and there was an uncommon
intelligence and fen Ability in her eyes: fhe appeared
to have been-handfome when Ihe was' young, but at
this time little more than memorials of her beauty were loft.
As