If we fairly consider the different situations of a common sailor on board ... and of a Tahitian on his island, we cannot blame the former if he attempted to rid himself of the numberless discomforts of a voyage around the world, and preferred an easy life, free from cares, in the happiest climate of the world, to the frequent vicissitudes which are entailed upon the mariner. The most favourable prospects of future success in England, which he might form an idea, could never be so flattering to his senses as the lowly hope of living like the meanest Tahitian ... he must earn his subsistence in England, at the expense of labour, and by the sweat of his brow, when this oldest curse on mankind is scarcely felt at Tahiti.
A Voyage Round the World: in His Britannic Majesty’s Sloop, Resolution, commanded by Capt. Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4 and 5, Vol. II (London: B. White, 1777), pp. 108–9
