[134]. Equal to our midshipman. F.
[135]. We are very ready to do justice to Mr. Bougainville, when he presents us with a new and interesting observation; but when he, without the least necessity, becomes the advocate of tyranny and oppression, we cannot let these sentiments pass unnoticed. It would have appeared to us impossible, that such an idea as this could enter into any man’s head who is in his right senses: he wrote down this strange assertion, either being carried away by the itch to say something extraordinary and paradoxical, or in order to make slavery more tolerable to his fellow Frenchmen—Slavery endeavours to extirpate and to smother all sentiments of honour, which only can operate in the breast of a really free man; true honour, therefore, and slavery, are in direct opposition, and can be combined as little as fire and water. If Mr. B. threw this sentence out, in order to alleviate the yoke of tyranny his country groans under, we think we could excuse it in some measure, as he would then act from principles of humanity. But if the irresistible desire of saying something new was the prevalent motive with him, it has much the appearance as if he were willing to insult the poor victims of despotism. The generous and amiable character which M. B. from other instances appears in, prompts us to wish, that this sentence had been omitted by him. F.
[136]. I must here observe, that I have not altered the spelling of the words at all; and the reader will therefore take notice, that they should be pronounced according to the rules of the French language. F.
Transcriber’s Note
The Taitian Vocabulary at the end of the text was printed in two columns, which are presented here as a single continuous table, interspersed with notes.
Given the age of the text, any corrections to spelling is problematic. Corrections have only been made when there are ample examples of our modern spelling.
In the quotation from Virgil at the opening of Part II on p. 199, the English word ‘and’ was (no doubt) mistakenly used rather than the Latin ‘et’. It is given correctly in the French original.
The name of the marquis de Buccarelli (appearing as such ten times) is given three times (pp. 113-117) as ‘Bucarelli’. These have been corrected to facilitate text searches.