ed, of their
policy, may well explain the rapidity in the diminution of the people
before noticed.--E.]

But I must not conclude my account of the domestic life of these people
without mentioning their personal cleanliness. If that which lessens the
good of life and increases the evil is vice, surely cleanliness is a
virtue: The want of it tends to destroy both beauty and health, and
mingles disgust, with our best pleasures. The natives of Otaheite, both
men and women, constantly wash their whole bodies in running water three
times every day; once as soon as they rise in the morning, once at noon,
and again before they sleep at night, whether the sea or river is near
them or at a distance. I have already observed, that they wash not only
the mouth, but the hands at their meals, almost between every morsel;
and their clothes, as well as their persons, are kept without spot or
stain; so that in a large company of these people, nothing is suffered
but heat, which, perhaps, is more than can be said of the politest
assembly in Europe.[16]

[Footnote 16: Here Dr H. seems to have forgotten altogether the
substitutes which modern Europeans employ for cleanliness, to render
polite assemblies tolerable--musk, bergamot, lavender, &c. &c. articles,
which, besides their value in saving the precious time of our fine
ladies, who could not easily spare a quarter of an hour a day from their
important occupations, for the Otaheitan practice of bathing, are of
vast utility to the state, by affording suitable exercise to the talents
of the vast tribe of perfumers and beautifiers of every description,
who, it is probable, would otherwise become mere drones in the
community. But what would these Otaheitans conceive of the health and
comfort and appearance and odour of the great mass of British ladies,
who, unless banished to a watering place, no more think of being
_generally_ washed, than of being curried with a currying-comb, or
undergoing the operation of tattowing? The powers of nature are
marvellous indeed, which can support their lives for years, under all
the fifth and exuviae, accumulated with such idolatrous fondness.--E.]

SECTION XVIII.

_Of the Manufactures, Boats, and Navigations of Otaheite._

If necessity is the mother of invention, it cannot be supposed to have
been much exerted where the liberality of Nature has rendered the
diligence of Art almost superfluous; yet there are many instances both
of ingenuity and lab