"'Animal food is a luxury obtained with difficulty once or twice in
the week; and though we have, by dint of very hard labor, been
enabled to obtain cloth and other indispensable necessaries from
whale-ships, in exchange for potatoes, yet this resource is
beginning to fail us; not from scarcity of visitors, but from
inability on our part to supply them.
"'This is the exact state of affairs at present: how much it will be
aggravated ten years from this, may be imagined, but cannot be fully
realized even by ourselves. Whether the British Government will
again interest itself in our behalf, is doubtful; if it does not,
despite the most assiduous industry, a scanty allowance of potatoes
and salt must be the result, and the "Tibuta" and "Maro," will be
the unchanging food and raiment of the rising generation.'"
GEORGE. "What a pity the coral insects have not been at work there,
and enlarged these poor peoples' island; then they could have all
remained together, and brought up their families. As it is, some
_must_ migrate. Charles, you are very ingenious; cannot you contrive
a plan for overcoming these difficulties."
CHARLES. "Much as I should glory in benefiting mankind, I could not
by any effort or sacrifice ameliorate the condition of these poor
people, although I would willingly do anything in my power to
testify my sorrow for their wretched destitution."
DORA. "I fear none of us can accord them more than our sympathy; so
we must needs journey on to the Marquesas, which were discovered by
the Spaniards in 1595.
Pages:
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266