nown
that the natives of Hispaniola, when they saw the Spaniards arrive on
their coast, in vessels of an astonishing size to their apprehensions,
and heard them imitate the thunder with their cannon, took them for
beings of a superior nature to their own. Supposing that this island had
been extremely remote from every other country, and that the Spaniards,
after conquering it, had held no further communication with any
civilized land, at the end of a century or two the language and the
manners would have assimilated, but there would have been two castes,
one of lords, enjoying all the advantages, the other of serfs, charged
with all the burdens. This theory seems to have been realized anciently
in Hindostan; but if we must credit the tradition of the
Sandwich-islanders, their country was originally peopled by a man and
woman, who came to Owyhee in a canoe. Unless, then, they mean that this
man and woman came with their slaves, and that the _Eris_ are descended
from the first, and the _Tootoos_ from the last, they ought to attribute
to each other the same origin, and consequently regard each other as
equals, and even as brothers, according to the manner of thinking that
prevails among savages. The cause of the slavery of women among most
barbarous tribes is more easily explained: the men have subjected them
by the right of the strongest, if ignorance and superstition have not
caused them to be previously regarded as beings of an inferior nature,
made to be servants and not companions.[G]

[Footnote F: The _Tootoos_ and all the women, the wives of the king and
principal chiefs excepted, are eternally condemned to the use of fruits
and vegetables; dogs and pigs being exclusively reserved for the table
of the _Eris_.]

[Footnote G: Some Indian tribes think that women have no souls, but die
altogether like the brutes; others assign them a different paradise from
that of men, which indeed they might have reason to prefer for
themselves, unless their relative condition were to be ameliorated in
the next world.]

CHAPTER VI.

Departure from Wahoo.--Storm.--Arrival at the Mouth of the
Columbia.--Reckless Order of the Captain.--Difficulty of the
Entrance.--Perilous Situation of the Ship.--Unhappy Fate of a part
of the Crew and People of the Expedition.

Having taken on board a hundred head of live hogs, some goats, two
sheep, a quantity of poultry, two boat-loads of sugar-cane, to feed the
hogs,