acquired great consideration, so that it would be
easy for him to be of assistance to them. At the same time he earnestly
warned them against the Frenchman, who had also resided for some years
in Nukahiva, but whose character he painted in very dark colours. The
two Russian captains, Krusenstern and Lisiansky, accordingly put their
trust in Roberts and drew most of their information concerning the
natives from him. On the other hand their naturalist, Langsdorff, made
most use of the Frenchman. He admitted, indeed, that the Englishman was
a man of better character, greater natural intelligence, and much higher
education; but on the other hand he tells us that the Frenchman had
been longer in the island and possessed a more thorough mastery of the
language and a greater intimacy with the natives, among whom he had
lived as a savage among savages so long that he had almost forgotten his
own native tongue. But Langsdorff took care to question both these men
and only accepted as true statements in which they agreed with each
other, and to this agreement he naturally attached the greater weight
because his two informants were bitterly hostile to each other and
therefore were unlikely to unite in deceiving him.[152] On the whole,
then, the account which Langsdorff gives of Marquesan society and
religion is perhaps more trustworthy as well as fuller than that of his
two compatriots and companions, Krusenstern and Lisiansky.

[149] J. Cook, _Voyages_, iii. 274-281; compare G. Forster,
_Voyage round the World_ (London, 1777), ii. 5 _sqq._

[150] C. P. Claret Fleurieu, _Voyage round the World performed
during the years 1790, 1791, and 1792 by Etienne Marchand_
(London, 1801), i. 31, 51. Marchand's brief account is
supplemented from other sources by his editor Fleurieu (_op.
cit._ i. 55 _sqq._).

[151] A. J. von Krusenstern, _Voyage round the World in the
years 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1806_ (London, 1813), i. 108 _sq._,
133 _sqq._; U. Lisiansky, _Voyage round the World_ (London,
1814), pp. 62, 95; G. H. von Langsdorff, _Bemerkungen auf einer
Reise um die Welt in den Jahren 1803 bis 1807_ (Frankfurt am
Main, 1812), i. 75, 161.

[152] Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i. 110-112; Lisiansky, _op. cit._
p. 79; Langsdorff, _op. cit._ i. 77, 83-85. As to the subsequent
history of Roberts and Cabri, see Vincendon-Dumoulin et C.
Desgraz, _Iles Marquises ou Nouka-hiva_ (Paris, 184