It was a dreadful testimony of the severity of the climate, that this event took place when it was the midst of summer in that part of the world, and at the close of a day, the beginning of which was as mild and warm, as the month of May usually is in England.
In the passage through the Strait of Le Maire, Lieutenant Cook and his ingenious associates had an opportunity of gaining a considerable degree of acquaintance with the inhabitants of the adjoining country.
Here it was that they saw human nature to its lowest form.

The natives appeared to be the most destitute and forlorn, as well as the most stupid, of the children of men.

Their lives are spent in wandering about the dreary wastes that surround them; and their dwellings are no other than wretched hovels of sticks and grass, which not only admit the wind, but the snow and the rain.

They are almost naked, and so devoid are they of every convenience which is furnished by the rudest art, that they have not so much as an implement to dress their food.
Nevertheless, they seemed to have no wish for acquiring more than they possessed; nor did any thing that was offered them by the English appear acceptable but beads, as an ornamental superfluity of life.

A conclusion is hence drawn by Dr.Hawkesworth, that these people may be upon a level with ourselves, in respect to the happiness they enjoy.
This, however, is a position which ought not hastily to be admitted.
It is, indeed, a beautiful circumstance, in the order of Divine Providence, that the rudest inhabitants of the earth, and those who are situated in the most unfavourable climates, should not be sensible of their disadvantages.