HISTORY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO, 287 city of great events, and the absence of great cha- racters, on the theatre of Polynesian history. There is no circumstance in their history, unless we except their discovery by Europeans, which de- serves to be considered among the great events of the common history of mankind ; and hardly an individual, of such prominent fortune or endow- ment, as to rank with the great men of other coun» tries. This phenomenon, as far as the natives are concerned, may be traced to the insulated situation of these regions, — ^to the barbarism of their inha- bitants, — and to the physical condition of insular and tropical countries, the very nature of which has proved an insuperable barrier to the great and ambi- tious movements and migrations which have marked the progress of nations equally or more barbarous in temperate and continental climates. In the Indian islands the field is wanting for the exercise of great military talents, and they have, of consequence, never existed. Such a feebleness of intellect is the result of such a state of society, and such a climate, that we may usually reckon that the greatest powers of the native mind will hardly bear a comparison, in point of strength and resources, to the ordinary standard of the human understanding in the highest stages of civilization, though they may necessarily be better suited for distinction in the peculiar circum- stances in which they are called into action. The only ttative characters, whose genius places them above th^
