3$4 A N A C C O U N T O F
fhould conceive, will be difpofed to allow, that their lives
do eredit to humao nature; and that, however untutored,
however uniformed, their manners prefent an interefting
picture to mankind.—We fee a defpotic government without
one fhade of tyranny, and power only exercifed for g e neral
happinefs, the fubjedts looking up with filial reverence
to their Ring.— And, whilft a mild government, and an af-
fediionate confidence, linked their little ftate in bonds o f
harmony, gentkanefs o f manners was the natural refult, and
fixed a brotherly and difinterefted irrtereourfe among one
another.
I am well aware, that in the expedition againft Pele-
lew, the deftroyiog the houfes and plantations of the little
iiland belonging to it, which the natives, through fear, had
abandoned, ai well as the killing thofe whom they captured
in battle, are both o f them drcumftances which mil appear
to militate againft 'that humanity which, throughout this
work, J have attributed to the people of Pexew.—Refpedt-
ing the firft, though the landing in an enemy’s country,
and fpneading devaluation and diftrefs, is b y no means a
pradfeioe new in the annals of hiftory, political neteffity
qualifying the meafure ^ yet in thefe regions it feemed ahb
to militate fo much againft their accuftomed maxim, never
to take an enemy by furprize, but to give previous notice o f
a meditated attacks that I am ftrongly inclined to think
this might have been a new art o f war fuggefted to the
King
T H E P E L E W I S L A N D S .
King bpxk&MMay favourite, as it totally cofltradidted that
open generofity with which they at all times condudted hof-
tMitie§;-; *
As to their putting- their prifbners to death, Raa Kook,
on being ednfared for it by Captain Wilson, faid, it bad not
'Gktiaye freen fo* andy ihafligning reafbns fte being compelled
to doJit, feemed to ftielter the -proceeding under the pl^a of
political necejjtty« 11
The number captured in any ofthMy baffles ,brail,; from
their m6de bf engagiBg, be at ail timds very trifling. In the
mbft'; corifiderable engagement our people witnefled at A®>
tingall, no mote than nine were made prifbners, which
the natives accounted a great mahyf n^wire jhefe pat t&
death in eoMhfobd, it rather might beeaKed theckrfepf the
battle. It was generally the effedt of unfubfided palllon or
revenge, the terminating blow being, in moft cafes, .given
by fome dne who had loft a near relation, or friend, in the
battle, or was himfelfbuffering under the pain of a wound,
hefides, as thefe iflands ware fituated fo near to each
other, it was next to impofiible to detain their captives,;
they had no prifons fo confine themn o cartel canoes .to
negotiate an exchange; and, going about the ifland freely,
the lives of the Sovereign, or Ms GMefs, were at all times
aflailahle by any vindidtive fpirit. They had, as the General
told Captain Wi bsoi?, ineffe&ually ftrove to detain them as
menial
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