They seem to be blest with a frank, cheerful disposition; and were I to draw any comparisons, I should say, that they are equally free from the fickle levity which distinguishes the natives of Otaheite, and the sedate cast observable amongst many of those of Tongataboo. They seem to live very sociably in their intercourse with one another; and, except the propensity to thieving, which seems innate in most of the people we have visited in this ocean, they were exceedingly friendly to us. And it does their sensibility no little credit, without flattering ourselves, that when they saw the various articles of our European manufacture, they could not help expressing their surprise, by a mixture of joy and concern, that seemed to apply the case, as a lesson of humility, to themselves; and, on all occasions, they appeared deeply impressed with a consciousness of their own inferiority; a behaviour which equally exempts their national character from the preposterous pride of the more polished Japanese, and of the ruder Greenlander. It was a pleasure to observe with how much affection the women managed their infants, and how readily the men lent their assistance to such a tender office; thus sufficiently distinguishing themselves from those savages who esteem a wife and child as things rather necessary than desirable, or worthy of their notice. From the numbers which we saw collected at every village, as we sailed past, it may be supposed that the inhabitants of this island are pretty numerous. Any computation that we make can be only conjectural. But that some notion may be formed, which shall not greatly err on either side, I should suppose that, including the straggling houses, there might be, upon the whole island, sixty such villages, as that before which we anchored; and that, allowing five persons to each house, there would be, in every village, five hundred; or thirty thousand upon the island. This number is, certainly, not exaggerated; for we had sometimes three thousand persons, at least, upon the beach; when it could not be supposed that above a tenth part of the inhabitants were present.