other, and
divided by the intervention of the American continent, we may trace a
resemblance even in many of their customs and institutions; their
national songs and dances, their domestic economy, their system of
government, and their funeral ceremonies. I pretend not, however, to
affirm that this resemblance is so exact as to create the presumption of
common origin. The affinity perceivable in the dispositions and virtues
of these widely-separated tribes, arose probably from a similarity in
their circumstances and situation, operating on the general principles
of human nature. Placed alike in a happy medium; between savage life,
properly so called, and the refinements of polished society, they are
found equally exempt from the sordid corporeal distresses and sanguinary
passions of the former state, and from the artificial necessities, the
restraints, and solicitudes of the latter."--"In those inventions and
arts, which, varying the enjoyments, add considerably to the value of
life, I believe the Otaheitans were in general somewhat behind our
islanders; in agriculture they were particularly so. The great support
of the inferior territories of the South-sea consists of the bread-fruit
and the plantain; both which flourish there spontaneously; and although
the inhabitants have likewise plantations of yams, and other excellent
roots, yet the cultivation of none of them appears to be as extensive as
was that of the maize in the West Indies, or to display equal skill with
the preparation of the Cassavi-bread from the maniock. The West Indians,
notwithstanding that they possessed almost every variety of vegetable
nature which grew in the countries I have mentioned, the bread-fruit
excepted, raised also both the maize and the maniock in great abundance;
and they had acquired the skill of watering their lands from distant
rivers, in time of drought. It may likewise be observed, that although
the Otaheitans possess the shrub which produces cotton, they neither
improve it by culture, nor have the knowledge of converting its wool
into cloth, but content themselves with a far meaner production as a
substitute. Our islanders had not only the skill of making excellent
cloth from their cotton, but they practised also the arts of dying it,
with a variety of colours, some of them of the utmost brilliancy and
beauty. In the science of shipbuilding (if the construction of such
vessels as either people used may be distinguished with that