This speaks little for the humanity of sea captains; but the truth is that those in the Pacific have little enough of the virtue; and, nowadays, when so many charitable appeals are made to them, they have become callous.
I pitied the poor fellow from the bottom of my heart; but nothing could I do, as our captain was inexorable.

"Why," said he, "here we are--started on a six months' cruise--I can't put back; and he is better off on the island than at sea.

So on Roorootoo he must die." And probably he did.
I afterwards heard of this melancholy object, from two seamen.

His attempts to leave were still unavailing, and his hard fate was fast closing in.
Notwithstanding the physical degeneracy of the Tahitians as a people, among the chiefs, individuals of personable figures are still frequently met with; and, occasionally, majestic-looking men, and diminutive women as lovely as the nymphs who, nearly a century ago, swam round the ships of Wallis.

In these instances, Tahitian beauty is quite as seducing as it proved to the crew of the Bounty; the young girls being just such creatures as a poet would picture in the tropics--soft, plump, and dreamy-eyed.
The natural complexion of both sexes is quite light; but the males appear much darker, from their exposure to the sun.