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    giiage , never enabled me to discover the truth of nearly all the descrip * tions of those matters before the public , most of which I , at this moment , believe never to have had existence except in the heads of the writers ! But , fortunately for those who feed curiosity with a goosequill , there is no lack of credulity in Great Britain , whatever there may be of faith . To us , however , it is very immaterial what stories we are

    told about them ; and to know more or less of these savages will neither add to nor lessen our stock of happiness . Happiness , indeed , does not seem to be our object of search , so much as wealth , distinctions , and power , where alone we most of us suppose it to reside , notwithstanding half a thousand old fellows , from Solomon down to Dr . Cogan , have been telling" us we are all wrong . But these islanders have neither power nor gold to make it ; but plenty , cheerfulness , and content they

    have , —and with Nature only for their guide , they are so deplorably ignorant as to fancy , that these , with a few social enjoyments , constitute the summum honum of life . Upon the whole , there is more general happiness among them , than among any people I have met with on earth ; so that I am very sure , the less we teach them of our arts and sciences , the better for themselves . Let them , however , have our religion ; for though they have a firm belief in the Supreme Being ,

    -T-of the soul ' s separate existence , and of a future state after death still more happy than the present , yet it may be for their benefit hereafter to have a knowledge of Christianity , though I am not at all sure it will make them happier during life , or add to the composure with which I have seen several of them , both old and young , depart out of it . In most matters , indeed , they act up to its tenets already , without knowing anything'about it . But those customs among them , which are in

    direct opposition to its holy precepts , as well as to their own happiness here , ( most of which , however strange it may seem to the ear of an European , originate in pride of family y ) particularly infanticide , it would doubtless correct , and in time explode . But of this matter I have said more than enough , [ perhaps , and more than I intended /—pp . 285-291 .

    The above picture of the « savayes * is not the orthodox one , nor is it easy to get at the whole truth about the character and condition , past and present , of the South Sea Islanders . Voyagers and missionaries will , we suppose , in time settle it between them ; but the discrepancies are , at present , rather unmanageable for the untravelled critic . That the character of Captain Heywood rendered his evidence valuable would be sufficiently evinced by the above letter , were there no other indications on record of his

    soundness of mind and goodness of heart . We demur , however , both to his remark , and his biographer ' s comment , on the demonstration of English feeling towards Napoleon ;—4 In allusion to the report which had reached him of the multitudes of his countrymen who flocked to Plymouth , from curiosity , to see the fallen Emperor Napoleon , then on board an English vessel awaiting his destiny , thus paying him an honour gratifying-to his vanity , he says , «• Why , the public is a sort of nondescript , ai \ anomaly in nature . It

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    812 Tagarts Memoir &f Captain HeywooM

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1832, page 812, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1826/page/20/