our forefathers: part of their bread must be earned with the sweat of their brows. The high state of cultivation their lands are in must have cost them immense labour. This is now amply rewarded by the great produce, of which every one seems to partake. No one wants the common necessaries of life: joy and contentment are painted in every face. Indeed, it can hardly be otherwise: an easy freedom prevails among all ranks of people: they feel no wants which they do not enjoy the means of gratifying; and they live in a clime where the painful extremes of heat and cold are equally unknown. If nature has been wanting in any thing, it is in the article of fresh water, which, as it is shut up in the bowels of the earth, they are obliged to dig for. A running stream was not seen, and but one well, at Amsterdam. At Middleburg, we saw no water but what the natives had in vessels; but as it was sweet and cool, I had no doubt of its being taken up upon the island, and, probably, not far from the spot where I saw it. So little do we know of their religion, that I hardly dare mention it. The buildings called _Afiatoucas_, before mentioned, are undoubtedly set apart for this purpose. Some of our gentlemen were of opinion, that they were merely burying-places. I can only say, from my own knowledge, that they are places to which particular persons directed set speeches, which I understood to be prayers, as hath been already related. Joining my opinion with that of others, I was inclined to think that they are set apart to be both temples and burying-places, as at Otaheite, or even in Europe. But I have no idea of the images being idols; not only from what I saw myself, but from Mr. Wales’s informing me that they set one of them up, for him and others to shoot at. One circumstance showed that these _Afiatoucas_ were frequently resorted to, for one purpose or other; the areas, or open places, before them, being covered with a green sod, the grass on which was very short. This did not appear to have been cut, or reduced by the hand of man, but to have been prevented in its growth by being often trod, or sat upon. It cannot be supposed that we could know much, either of their civil or religious policy, in so short a time as four or five days, especially as we understood but little of their language: even the two islanders we had on board could not at first understand them; and yet as we became the more acquainted with them, we found their language was nearly the same spoken at Otaheite and the Society Isles. The difference not being greater than what we find betwixt the most northern and western parts of England, as will more fully appear by the vocabulary. CHAP. IV. PASSAGE FROM AMSTERDAM TO QUEEN CHARLOTTE’S SOUND, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF AN INTERVIEW WITH THE INHABITANTS, AND THE FINAL SEPARATION OF THE TWO SHIPS.