The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. I. Being the First of the First Voyage.Cook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. I. Being the First of the First Voyage.
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
can surmount the sense of danger, without a flow of animal spirits by
which it is extinguished, seems to be the prerogative of those who have
projects of more lasting importance, and a keener sense of honour and
disgrace, than can be formed or felt by men who have few pains or
pleasures besides those of mere animal life, and scarcely any purpose
but to provide for the day that is passing over them, to obtain plunder,
or revenge an insult: they will march against each other indeed in cool
blood, though they find it necessary to work themselves into passion
before they engage; as among us there have been many instances of people
who have deliberately made themselves drunk, that they might execute a
project which they formed when they were sober, but which, while they
continued so, they did not dare to undertake.
On the side of the hill, near this inclosure, we saw about half an acre
planted with gourds and sweet potatoes, which was the only cultivation
in the bay: under the foot of the point upon which this fortification
stands, are two rocks, one just broken off from the main, and the other
not perfectly detached from it: they are both small, and seem more
proper for the habitations of birds than men; yet there are houses and
places of defence upon each of them. And we saw many other works of the
same kind upon small islands, rocks, and ridges of hills, on different
parts of the coast, besides many fortified towns, which appeared to be
much superior to this.
The perpetual hostility in which these poor savages, who have made every
village a fort, must necessarily live, will account for there being so
little of their land in a state of cultivation; and, as mischiefs very
often reciprocally produce each other, it may perhaps appear, that there
being so little land in a state of cultivation, will account for their
living in perpetual hostility. But it is very strange, that the same
invention and diligence which have been used in the construction of
places so admirably adapted to defence, almost without tools, should
not, when urged by the same necessity, have furnished them with a single
missile weapon except the lance, which is thrown by hand; they have no
contrivance like a bow to discharge a dart, nor any thing like a sling
to assist them in throwing a stone; which is the more surprising, as the
invention of slings, and bows and arrows, is much more obvious than of
the works which these people construct, and both these weapons are found
among much ruder nations, and in almost every other part of the world.
Besides the long lance and Patoo-patoo, which have been mentioned
already, they have a staff about five feet long, sometimes pointed like
a Serjeant’s halberd, sometimes only tapering to a point at one end, and
having the other end broad, and shaped somewhat like the blade of an
oar. They have also another weapon, about a foot shorter than these,
pointed at one end, and at the other shaped like an axe. The points of
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