ratively full
and accurate information concerning them was our great English explorer,
Captain James Cook. Thus at the date of their discovery the natives were
quite unaffected by European influence: of our civilisation they knew
nothing: of Christianity, though it had existed in the world for nearly
eighteen hundred years, they had never heard: they were totally ignorant
of the metals, and had made so little progress in the arts of life that
in most of the islands pottery was unknown,[2] and even so simple an
invention as that of bows and arrows for use in war had not been thought
of.[3] Hence their condition was of great interest to students of the
early history of man, since it presented to their observation the
spectacle of a barbaric culture evolved from an immemorial past in
complete independence of those material, intellectual, and moral forces
which have moulded the character of modern European nations. The
lateness of their discovery may also be reckoned a fortunate
circumstance for us as well as for them, since it fell at a time when
scientific curiosity was fully awakened among us, and when scientific
methods were sufficiently understood to allow us to study with profit a
state of society which differed so widely from our own, and which in an
earlier and less enlightened age might have been contemplated only with
aversion and disgust.

[1] Horatio Hale, _The United States Exploring Expedition,
Ethnography and Philology_ (Philadelphia, 1846), pp. 4 _sqq_.,
9 _sqq._; J. Deniker, _The Races of Man_ (London, 1900), pp. 500
_sqq._

[2] J. Deniker, _The Races of Man_ (London, 1900), pp. 154, 501;
_British Museum, Handbook to the Ethnographical Collections_
(1910), p. 147.

[3] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_ (London, 1809), v. 416; W.
Mariner, _Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands_, Second
Edition (London, 1818), i. 67; W. Ellis, _Polynesian
Researches_, Second Edition (London, 1832-1836), i. 220; E.
Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders_,
Second Edition (London, 1856), p. 212; J. Deniker, _The Races of
Man_, p. 501. In Polynesia "the bow was not a serious weapon; it
was found in some islands, _e.g._ in Tahiti and Tonga, but was
principally used for killing rats or in shooting matches"
(_British Museum, Handbook to the Ethnographical Collections_,
p. 153). As to the limited use of bows and arrows in Polynesia,