In a letter to a
friend [David Samwell] expressed an opinion that was universal among British
seamen: "The Natives of all the South Sea Islands... are a good natured
humane & well disposed People in my opinion much superior to ourselves in
those respects—the Women are well made, exceedingly clean and have very
beautiful Faces, when we add to this that they are universally goodnatured and
of a merry agreeable Disposition & always possessed of a good Flow of
Spirits, what the Devil can we wish for more, till we get to Heaven."
...How Polynesians, who bathed at every opportunity, could bear standing
downwind of 18th century Europeans, much less embrace them, Samwell does not
discuss.
*David Samwell was a surgeons mate on Cook's
expedition to Hawaii.
Page 89, Voyagers
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