Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/337

] feet only, till they tied to our ropes, the articles which they wished to barter.

If we may judge of the character of those natives, by their conduct towards us, their dispositions were excellent: an air of goodness was expressed in their features. Very different from the savages of the little island, which we had visited two days before, they gave us proofs of great probity. It was surprising to meet with so great a difference in the manners of savages, so little removed from each other, and who practised the same arts. The disparity of their conduct towards us might have proceeded from this; that the savages of the little island had dealt only with boats, whereas the others did business with large ships, which inspired respect.

The commanders of the canoes commonly made the paddlers surrender the articles which we had given them. We saw with pain, that they sometimes employed violence for this purpose. One of those poor people had received from us a bit of red serge, which he was not willing to deliver to one of the chiefs; but the latter forced it from him, by repeated blows with his cudgel.

At the same time, one of the islanders, in another canoe, was treated with similar harshness, by one of the chiefs, because the poor wretch had allowed his attention to be occupied in contem- plating