"When we were under sail one old man, Topaa [a native], came on board to take leave of us; and as we were still desirous of making further inquiries whether any memory of Tasman had been preserved among their people, Tupia was directed to ask him whether he had ever heard that such a vessel as ours had before visited the country. To this he replied in the negative; but said that _his ancestors had told him_ there had once come to this place a _small_ vessel from a distant country called Ulimaroa, in which were _four_ men, who upon coming on shore were _all killed_. Upon being asked where this distant land lay he pointed to the northward." But what does Tasman himself say?-- "On the 17th December these savages began to grow a little bolder and more familiar, insomuch that at last they ventured on board the _Heemskirk_, in order to trade with those in the vessel. As soon as I perceived it, being apprehensive that they might attempt to surprise that ship, _I sent my shallop_, with seven men, to put the people in the _Heemskirk_ on their guard, and to direct them not to place any confidence in these people. My seven men, being _without arms_, were attacked by these savages, who _killed three_ of the seven, and _forced_ the other _four_ to swim for their lives; _which_ occasioned my giving that place the name of the Bay of Murderers.[250] Our ship's company _would undoubtedly_ have taken a severe revenge if the rough weather had not prevented them."--_Tasman's Voyage of Discovery, Pinkerton_, xi. [250] This was a recognition on Tasman's part that there was a violation of the law of nations, which he evidently considered ought to have been recognised by these people. For killing unarmed men he does not stigmatise them as savages, but as murderers, which name has clung to the spot and to the transaction to this day. Now, I submit that this old man Topaa's recollection of the tradition of an event which occurred one hundred and thirty years before his time, was much more perfect than Captain Cook's, Sir Joseph Banks', Dr Solander's, and Sir J. Lubbock's recollection of the same event from geographical records. Emboldened by this instance of the fallibility of scientific men, I now proceed to question the truth of the two following propositions of Sir J. Lubbock, after which I shall ask to be allowed to enunciate a proposition of my own. First, Sir J. Lubbock says: "It has been asserted over and over again that there is no race of man so degraded as to be entirely without a religion--without some idea of the Deity. So far from this being true, the very reverse is the case" (p. 467).[251]