y expressed: What they feel they have never been taught either to
disguise or suppress, and having no habits of thinking which perpetually
recal the past, and anticipate the future, they are affected by all the
changes of the passing hour, and reflect the colour of the time, however
frequently it may vary: They have no project which is to be pursued from
day to day, the subject of unremitted anxiety and solicitude, that first
rushes into the mind when they awake in the morning, and is last
dismissed when they sleep at night. Yet if we admit that they are upon
the whole happier than we, we must admit that the child is happier than
the man, and that we are losers by the perfection of our nature, the
increase of our knowledge, and the enlargement of our views.

Canoes were continually coming in during all this fore-noon, and the
tents at the fort were crowded with people of both sexes from different
parts of the island. I was myself busy on board the ship, but Mr
Mollineux, our master, who was one of those that made the last voyage in
the Dolphin, went on shore. As soon as he entered Mr Banks's tent he
fixed his eyes upon one of the women, who was sitting there with great
composure among the rest, and immediately declared her to be the person
who at that time was supposed to be the queen of the island; she also,
at the same time, acknowledging him to be one of the strangers whom she
had seen before. The attention of all present was now diverted from
every other object, and wholly engaged in considering a person who had
made so distinguished a figure in the accounts that had been given of
this island by its first discoverers; and we soon learnt that her name
was OBEREA. She seemed to be about forty years of age, and was not only
tall, but of a large make; her skin was white, and there was an uncommon
intelligence and sensibility in her eyes: She appeared to have been
handsome when she was young, but at this time little more than memorials
of her beauty were left.

As soon as her quality was known, an offer was made to conduct her to
the ship. Of this she readily accepted, and came on board with two men
and several women, who seemed to be all of her family: I received her
with such marks of distinction as I thought would gratify her most, and
was not sparing of my presents, among which this august personage seemed
particularly delighted with a child's doll. After some time spent on
board, I attended her back to the shore; an