The Soil Of The Society Isles In
The Plains And Vallies Is Rich, And The Rivulets Which Intersect It
Supply Abundance Of Moisture.
All sorts of vegetables, therefore,
thrive with great luxuriance upon it, and require little attendance or
cultivation.
This profusion is become the source of that great luxury
among the chiefs, which we do not meet with at Tonga-tabboo. There the
coral rock is covered only with a thin bed of mould, which sparingly
affords nourishment to all sorts of trees; and the most useful of all,
the bread-fruit tree, thrives imperfectly on the island, as it is
destitute of water, except when a genial shower happens to impregnate
and fertilize the ground. The labour of the natives is therefore
greater than that of the Otaheitans, and accounts for the regularity
of the plantations, and the accurate division of property. It is
likewise to this source we must ascribe it, that they have always set
a higher value on their provisions than on their tools, dresses,
ornaments, and weapons, though many of these must have cost them
infinite time and application. They very justly conceive the articles
of food to be their principal riches, of which the loss is absolutely
not to be remedied. If we observed their bodies more slender, and
their muscles harder than those of the Otaheitans, this seems to be
the consequence of a greater and more constant exertion of strength.
Thus, perhaps, they become industrious by force of habit, and when
agriculture does not occupy them, they are actuated to employ their
vacant hours in the fabrication of that variety of tools and
instruments on which they bestow so much time, patience, labour, and
ingenuity.
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