live very sociably in their intercourse with one another; and,
except the propensity to thieving, which seems innate in most of the
people we have visited in this ocean, they were exceedingly friendly
to us. And it does their sensibility no little credit, without
flattering ourselves, that when they saw the various articles of our
European manufacture, they could not help expressing their surprise,
by a mixture of joy and concern, that seemed to apply the case as a
lesson of humility to themselves; and, on all occasions, they appeared
deeply impressed with a consciousness of their own inferiority; a
behaviour which equally exempts their national character from the
preposterous pride of the more polished Japanese, and of the ruder
Greenlander. It was a pleasure to observe with how much affection
the women managed their infants, and how readily the men lent their
assistance to such a tender office; thus sufficiently distinguishing
themselves from those savages, who esteem a wife and child as things
rather necessary, than desirable or worthy of their notice.

From the numbers which we saw collected at every village, as we sailed
past, it may be supposed, that the inhabitants of this island
are pretty numerous. Any computation, that we make, can be only
conjectural. But, that some notion may be formed, which shall not
greatly err on either side, I would suppose, that, including the
straggling houses, there might be, upon the whole island, sixty such,
villages, as that before which we anchored; and that, allowing five
persons to each house, there would be, in every village, five hundred;
or thirty thousand upon the island. This number is certainly not
exaggerated; for we had sometimes three thousand persons at least upon
the beach; when it could not be supposed that above a tenth part of
the inhabitants were present.

The common dress both of the women and of the men has been already
described. The first have often much larger pieces of cloth wrapped
round them, reaching from just below the breasts to the hams or lower;
and several were seen with pieces thrown loosely about the shoulders,
which covered the greatest part of the body; but the children when
very young are quite naked. They wear nothing upon the head; but the
hair in both sexes is cut in different forms; and the general fashion,
especially among the women, is to have it long before and short
behind. The men often had it cut or shaved on each side, in such a
m