In this last voyage of our commander, a stone hatchet was as rare a thing among the inhabitants as an iron one was eight years before; and a chisel of bone or stone was not to be seen.

Spike nails had succeeded in their place; and of spike nails the natives were weak enough to imagine that they had gotten an inexhaustible store.

Of all our commodities, axes, and hatchets remained the most unrivalled; and they must ever be held in the highest estimation through the whole of the islands.

Iron tools are so strikingly useful, and are now become so necessary to the comfortable existence of the inhabitants, that, should they cease to receive supplies of them, their situation, in consequence of their neither possessing the materials, nor being trained up to the art of fabricating them, would be rendered completely miserable.

It is impossible to reflect upon this representation of things without strong feelings of sympathy and concern.