“The number of places, at which the rise and times of flowing of tides have been observed, in these voyages, is very great; and hence an important article of useful knowledge is afforded. In these observations, some very curious and even unexpected circumstances have offered themselves to our consideration. It will be sufficient to instance the exceedingly small height to which the tide rises in the middle of the great Pacific Ocean; where it falls short, two-thirds at least, of what might have been expected from theory and calculation.
“The direction and force of currents at sea make also an important object. These voyages will be found to contain much useful information on this head; as well relating to seas nearer home, and which, in consequence, are navigated every day, as to those which are more remote, but where, notwithstanding, the knowledge of these things may be of great service to those who are destined to navigate them hereafter. To this head also we may refer the great number of experiments which have been made for enquiring into the depth of the sea, its temperature, and saltness at different depths, and in a variety of places and climates.
“An extensive foundation has also been laid for improvements in magnetism, for discovering the cause and nature of the polarity of the needle, and a theory of its variations, by the number and variety of the observations and experiments which have been made, both on the variation and dip, in almost all parts of the world. Experiments also have been made, in consequence of the late voyages, on the effects of gravity, in different and very distant places, which may serve to increase our stock of natural knowledge. From the same source of information we have learned that the phænomenon, usually called the aurora borealis is not peculiar to high northern latitudes, but belongs equally to all cold climates, whether they be north or south.
“But perhaps no part of knowledge has been so great a gainer by the late voyages, as that of botany. We are told[[62]] that, at least twelve hundred new plants have been added to the known system; and that very considerable additions have been made to every other branch of natural history, by the great skill and industry of Sir Joseph Banks, and the other gentlemen[[63]] who have accompanied Captain Cook for that purpose.”
To our naval officers in general, or to their learned associates in the expeditions, all the foregoing improvements of knowledge may be traced; but there is one very singular improvement indeed, still behind, for which, as we are solely indebted to Captain Cook, let us state it in his own words: “Whatever may be the public judgment about other matters, it is with real satisfaction, and without claiming any merit but that of attention to my duty, that I can conclude this account with an observation, which facts enable me to make, that our having discovered the possibility of preserving health amongst a numerous ship’s company, for such a length of time, in such varieties of climate, and amidst such continued hardships and fatigues, will make this voyage remarkable, in the opinion of every benevolent person, when the disputes about a southern continent shall have ceased to engage the attention, and to divide the judgment of philosophers.”[[64]]
5. But while our late voyages have opened so many channels to an increase of knowledge in the several articles already enumerated; while they have extended our acquaintance with the contents of the globe; while they have facilitated old tracks, and have opened new ones for commerce; while they have been the means of improving the skill of the navigator, and the science of the astronomer; while they have procured to us so valuable accessions in the several departments of natural history, and furnished such opportunities of teaching us how to preserve the healths and lives of seamen, let us not forget another very important object of study, for which they have afforded to the speculative philosopher ample materials: I mean the study of human nature in various situations, equally interesting as they are uncommon.
However remote or secluded from frequent intercourse with more polished nations the inhabitants of any parts of the world be, if history or our own observation should make it evident that they have been formerly visited, and that foreign manners and opinions, and languages, have been blended with their own, little use can be made of what is observed amongst such people, toward drawing a real picture of man in his natural uncultivated state. This seems to be the situation of the inhabitants of most of the islands that lie contiguous to the continent of Asia, and of whose manners and institutions the Europeans, who occasionally visit them, have frequently given us accounts. But the islands which our enterprising discoverers visited in the centre of the South Pacific Ocean, and are, indeed, the principal scenes of their operations, were untrodden ground. The inhabitants, as far as could be observed, were unmixed with any different tribe, by occasional intercourse, subsequent to their original settlement there; left entirely to their own powers for every art of life; and to their own remote traditions for every political or religious custom or institution; uninformed by science; unimproved by education; in short, a fit soil from whence a careful observer could collect facts for forming a judgment, how far unassisted human nature will be apt to degenerate; and in what respects it can ever be able to excel. Who could have thought, that the brutal ferocity of feeding upon human flesh, and the horrid superstition of offering human sacrifices, should be found to exist amongst the natives lately discovered in the Pacific Ocean, who, in other respects, appear to be no strangers to the fine feelings of humanity, to have arrived at a certain stage of social life, and to be habituated to subordination and government which tend so naturally to repress the ebullitions of wild passion, and expand the latent powers of the understanding?
Or, if we turn from this melancholy picture, which will suggest copious matter for philosophical speculation, can we without astonishment observe to what a degree of perfection the same tribe (and, indeed, we may here join, in some of those instances, the American tribes visited in the course of the present voyage) have carried their favourite amusements; the plaintive songs of their women; their dramatic entertainments; their dances; their Olympian games, as we may call them; the orations of their chiefs; the chants of their priests; the solemnity of their religious processions; their arts and manufactures; their ingenious contrivances to supply the want of proper materials, and of effective tools and machines; and the wonderful productions of their persevering labour under a complication of disadvantages; their cloth and their mats; their weapons; their fishing instruments; their ornaments; their utensils; which, in design and execution, may vie with whatever modern Europe, or classical antiquity can exhibit.
It is a favourite study with the scholar to trace the remains of Grecian or Roman workmanship: he turns over his Montfaucon with learned satisfaction; and he gazes with rapture on the noble collection of Sir William Hamilton. The amusement is rational and instructive. But will not his curiosity be more awakened, will he not find even more real matter for important reflection, by passing an hour in surveying the numerous specimens of the ingenuity our newly-discovered friends brought from the utmost recesses of the globe to enrich the British Museum, and the valuable repository of Sir Ashton Lever? If the curiosities of Sir Ashton’s Sandwich-room alone, were the only acquisition gained by our visits to the Pacific Ocean, who that has taste to admire, or even eyes to behold, could hesitate to pronounce, that Captain Cook had not sailed in vain? The expence of his three voyages did not perhaps far exceed that of digging out the buried contents of Herculaneum. And we may add, that the novelties of the Society or Sandwich islands, seem better calculated to engage the attention of the studious in our times than the antiquities, which exhibit proofs of Roman magnificence.
The grounds for making this remark cannot be better explained, than in the words of a very ingenious writer; “In an age (says Mr. Warton[[65]]), advanced to the highest degree of refinement, that species of curiosity commences, which is busied in contemplating the progress of social life, in displaying the gradations of society, and in tracing the gradations from barbarism to civility. That these speculations should become the favourite topics of such a period is extremely natural. We look back on the savage condition of our ancestors with the triumph of superiority; and are pleased to mark the steps by which we have been raised from rudeness to elegance; and our reflections on this subject are accompanied with a conscious pride, arising, in a great measure, from a tacit comparison of the infinite disproportion between the feeble efforts of remote ages, and our present improvements in knowledge. In the mean time, the manners, monuments, customs, practices, and opinions of antiquity, by forming so strong a contrast with those of our own times, and by exhibiting human nature and human inventions in new lights, in unexpected appearances, and in various forms, are objects which forcibly strike a feeling imagination. Nor does this spectacle afford nothing more than a fruitless gratification to the fancy. It teaches us to set a just estimation on our own acquisitions, and encourages us to cherish that cultivation which is so closely connected with the existence and the exercise of every social virtue.” We need not here observe, that the manners, monuments, customs, practices, and opinions of the present inhabitants of the Pacific Ocean, or of the West side of North America, form the strongest contrast with those of our own time in enlightened Europe; and that a feeling imagination will probably be more struck with the narration of the ceremonies of a Naiche at Tongataboo, than of a Gothic tournament at London; with the contemplation of the colossuses of Easter Island, than of the mysterious remains of Stonehenge.