 of
the population lie grovelling.
 
7 The strict honesty which the inhabitants of nearly all the Polynesian islands
manifest toward each other, is in striking contrast with the thieving
propensities some of them evince in their intercourse with foreigners. It would
almost seem that, according to their peculiar code of morals, the pilfering of a
hatchet or a wrought nail from a European is looked upon as a praiseworthy
action. Or rather, it may be presumed, that bearing in mind the wholesale forays
made upon them by their nautical visitors, they consider the property of the
latter as a fair object of reprisal. This consideration, while it serves to
reconcile an apparent contradiction in the moral character of the islanders,
should in some measure alter that low opinion of it which the reader of South
Sea voyages is too apt to form.

