better, they think, to assassinate a man's person than to attack his reputation. In the first case, you only cause his death, which must happen to him some time or another, whether you will or not; but in the latter case you take from him what otherwise he might, strictly speaking, never have lost, which he might have carried with him faultless to the grave, and which afterwards might have remained attached to his memory as long as the memory of him existed. And they not only hold this as a just and honourable principle, but they likewise put it in practice; so that instances of calumny and defamation are very rare. On the other hand, they equally avoid the baseness of flattery, and even where a man has performed some achievement that is really praiseworthy, they seldom commend him in his presence, lest it should make him vain and proud of himself: and that they are very well able to discriminate true bravery from false we have already stated and instanced in the former volume. (See p. 240 and 241,) where it is also remarked, that a modest opinion of oneself is esteemed a great virtue, and is also put in practice for a farther instance of this, the conduct of the present king may be noticed,

when he first came into power, and his admirable speech may also be referred to. (Vol. I. p. 410.)

In regard to humanity, or a fellow-feeling for one another, much is to be said on both sides of the question. The sentiment itself is universally approved of, and they speak highly of Europeans for their mild and humane conduct it must be confessed, however, that they do not so extensively practise it, at least according to our notions of it, nor even, we may add, according to their own; which must be attributed in some to a want of thought, and want of feeling, particularly in boys and young lads; and in the older branches of society to motives of revenge, which, if it be for some serious injury, is deemed almost a virtue. We are here speaking of the men; as to the women, they are universally humane: a few, indeed, of the principal wives of chiefs are proud and haughty, and consequently tyrannical; but, considering the women generally, they are exceedingly humane and considerate; and though in their talkativeness, as in other parts of the world, they naturally speak of one another's faults, it is usually of such as are of a trifling nature, and without any malice, being mostly in the way of humour or joke: as to

considerable faults, such as a woman's infidelity to her husband, it would remain as much a secret with any of her own sex, (if they accidentally knew it,) as it possibly could with herself! Quarrels among the women are very rare. There is a lesser species of humanity, known commonly by the term good-nature, which is universally prevalent among the men as well as the women, and which is plainly depicted in the countenances of most of them. Taking all things into consideration, we must not venture to call them a humane people; but, on the contrary, to say they were cruel would certainly be making use of too harsh a term.

The next subject we shall consider is chastity. In respect to this, their notions are widely different from those of most European nations; we must, therefore, first examine what are their own ideas respecting this matter, and if they are such as are consistent with public decorum and due order and regularity in the social state, without tending to enervate the mind or debase the character of man, we shall take those ideas as the standard by which to judge them, and as far as they act consistently thereto we shall call them chaste, and as far as they infringe upon it we shall deem them offenders. But here it may be asked how are we to judge

whether their own notions upon this subject are consistent with the good order of society, &c. To this we can make no other answer than by referring to the actual state of society there, and pointing out those evils which may be supposed to arise from their wrong notions upon this subject.

In the first place, it is universally considered a positive duty in every married woman to remain true to her husband. What we mean by a married woman is, one who cohabits with a man, and lives under his roof and protection, holding an establishment of him. A woman's marriage is frequently independent of her consent, she having been betrothed by her parents, at an early age, to some chief, mataboole or mooa: perhaps about one third of the married women have been thus betrothed; the remaining two thirds have married with their free consent. Every married woman must remain with her husband whether she choose it or not, until he please to divorce her. Mr. Mariner thinks that about two thirds of the women are married, and of this number full half iemain with their husbands till death separates them; that is to say, full one third of the female population remain married till either themselves or their husbands die: the remaining two thirds

are married and are soon divorced, and are married again perhaps three, four, or five times in their lives, with the exception of a few who, from whim or some accidental cause, are never married; so that about one third of the whole female population, as before stated, are at any given point of time unmarried. This calculation is made with due reference to the women living on the plantations, who are almost all married to the tooas who till the ground, and remain constantly so; the unmarried women, therefore, live principally at the mooa, or place where the chiefs, matabooles, &c. dwell, and are attendants upon them or their wives. Girls that are too young to be marriageable are not taken into account. Having thus ascertained, as nearly as possible, the proportion of married women, we shall make an enquiry how far it may reasonably be supposed they are entitled to the reputation of fidelity. During the whole of Mr. Mariner's four years residence at one or other of these islands, he had frequent opportunities of intimacy with the wives of chiefs; for being a foreigner, and a white man, he was free from a great many restrictions to which the natives are subject: for instance, whenever he pleased he could go in the houses of Finow's wives, or of the wives