[Footnote 142:  We ought to distinguish betwixt the affection of the sexes, and those gross physical principles which lead to their temporary intercourse.  The latter exist, in some degree or other, wherever the difference of sex is found; but the former is the result of refinement in feeling, and a habit of reflection on objects of common interest, which civilization alone can produce.  This is with respect to members of the same community; much more does the rule hold where strangers are concerned.  It is positively absurd for them to expect affection, where the lawful and accustomed possessors of the she-savage have never yet been fortunate enough to elicit its display.  Well, therefore, has Captain Cook remarked, that the motives which lead to their occasional connexion are selfish, by which must be understood, the mercenary nature of the principle which actuates the female.—­E.]

Amongst our occasional visitors was a chief named Kahoora, who, as I was informed, headed the party that cut off Captain Furneaux’s people, and himself killed Mr Howe, the officer who commanded.  To judge of the character of Kahoora, by what I heard from many of his countrymen, he seemed to be more feared than beloved amongst them.  Not satisfied with telling me that he was a very bad man, some of them even importuned me to kill him; and, I believe, they were not a little surprised that I did not listen to them; for, according to their ideas of equity, this ought to have been done.  But if I had followed the advice of all our pretended friends, I might have extirpated the whole race; for the people of each hamlet, or village, by turns, applied to me to destroy the other.  One would have almost thought it impossible, that so striking a proof of the divided state in which this miserable people live, could have been assigned.  And yet I was sure that I did not misconceive the meaning of those who made these strange applications to me; for Omai, whose language was a dialect of their own, and perfectly understood all that they said, was our interpreter.

On the 15th, I made an excursion in my boat to look for grass, and visited the Hippah, or fortified village at the S.W. point of Motuara, and the places where our gardens had been planted on that island.  There were no people at the former; but the houses and pallisades had been rebuilt, and were now in a state of good repair; and there were other evident marks of its having been inhabited not long before.  It would be unnecessary, at present, to give a particular account of this Hippah, sufficient notice having been taken of it in the account of my first voyage.