heite.
Altogether the subject is imperfectly understood, and labours under
peculiar difficulties; we ought to listen with some hesitation,
therefore, to all assertions respecting it.--E.

[7] We have elsewhere had occasion to take notice of the fact of human
sacrifices and cannibalism, forming an essential particular in the
history of all the South Sea islanders. It is unnecessary to occupy a
moment's attention in farther enquiry respecting it, as perhaps no
question, in the circle of philosophical research, has received more
complete solution by the testimony of credible witnesses. He that
shall attempt to controvert their evidence, will have need of all the
effrontery and invincibility to truth that ever stamped the forehead
or hardened the heart of a polemist.--E.

[8] Here, then, we have two reasons for the practice of tattowing, in
addition to those which we enumerated in the account of Cook's first
voyage, provided only that Captain King's information can he relied
on. The first of these, it may be remarked, is so extremely similar to
the practice of wounding or cutting the body for the dead, which has
prevailed so extensively, that we can have no difficulty in allowing
the full force of the observation. But, with respect to the second,
one may incline to demur, on the ground of the improbability that such
a state of servitude as it implies, could exist in so apparently
primitive a condition of society. This, however, is not difficult of
explanation, as the reader will find in the following section, from
which one may safely infer, that the government of the Sandwich
islands is by no means one which requires for its exhibition, the
innocence, the liberty, and equality of the golden age. Some
conclusion may hence be drawn as to the probable origin and antiquity
of these islanders. But it is obvious that we are far from possessing
sufficient data to enable us to enter satisfactorily on the discussion
of the topic.--E.

[9] Mr Playfair in his Geography, vol. vi. p. 839, asserts, that the
Sandwich islands were first discovered by Gaetano, a Spanish
navigator, in 1542; but he does not assign his authority, or give any
clue for which the position may be verified. The fact is certainly
probable, as Captain King seems to admit; and supposing it so, we can
easily conceive that the distance o