Page:A voyage round the world, in His Britannic Majesty's sloop, Resolution, commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4, and 5 (IA b30413849 0001).pdf/243

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their morals. If these evils were in some measure compensated by the introduction of some real benefit in these countries, or by the abolition of some other immoral customs among their inhabitants, we might at least comfort ourselves, that what they lost on one hand, they gained on the other; but I fear that hitherto our intercourse has been wholly disadvantageous to the nations of the South Seas; and that those communities have been the least injured, who have always kept aloof from us, and whose jealous disposition did not suffer our sailors to become too familiar among them, as if they had perceived in their countenances that levity of disposition, and that spirit of debauchery, with which they are generally reproached.

Several of these people were invited into the cabin, where Mr. Hodges applied himself to sketch the most characteristic faces, while we prevailed on them to sit still for a few moments, keeping their attention engaged, by a variety of trifles which we shewed, and some of which we presented to them. We found several very expressive countenances among them, particularly some old men, with grey or white heads and beards; and some young men, with amazing bushy hair, which hung wildly over their faces, and increased their natural savage looks. The stature of these people was middle-sized in general, and their form and colour almost entirely the same as that of the Dusky Bay people; their dress was likewise made in the same man-