An additional evidence of human nature's being untainted with disease in New Zealand, is the great number of old men with whom it abounds.

Many of them, by the loss of their hair and teeth, appeared to be very ancient and yet none of them were decrepid.

Although they were not equal to the young in muscular strength, they did not come in the least behind them with regard to cheerfulness and vivacity.

Water, as far as our navigators could discover, is the universal and only liquor of the New Zealanders.

It is greatly to be wished, that their happiness in this respect may never be destroyed by such a connexion with the European nations, as shall introduce that fondness for spirituous liquors, which hath been so fatal to the Indians of North America.
From the observations which Lieutenant Cook and his friends made on the people of New Zealand, and from the similitude which was discerned between them and the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands, a strong proof arose, that both of them had one common origin; and this proof was rendered indubitable by the conformity of their language.