THE ROMANCE ON A PRIMITIVE ISLAND : The land of cannibals 1837 A.D

In a primitive state of society the enjoyments of life though fewand simple are spread over a great extent and are unalloyed; butCivilization for every advantage she imparts holds a hundred evils inreserve;--the heart-burnings the jealousies the social rivalriesthe family dissentions and the thousand self-inflicted discomforts ofrefined life which make up in units the swelling aggregate of humanmisery are unknown among these unsophisticated people. But it will be urged that these shocking unprincipled wretches arecannibals. Very true; and a rather bad trait in their character it mustbe allowed. But they are such only when they seek to gratify the passionof revenge upon their enemies; and I ask whether the mere eating ofhuman flesh so very far exceeds in barbarity that custom which onlya few years since was practised in enlightened England:--a convictedtraitor perhaps a man found guilty of honesty patriotism and suchlikeheinous crimes had his head lopped off with a huge axe his bowelsdragged out and thrown into a fire; while his body carved into fourquarters was with his head exposed upon pikes and permitted to rot andfester among the public haunts of men!