d not
believe there was a modest one among them. This censure is certainly too
general; but what Dr Solander saw of them when he was on shore, gave him
no very exalted idea of their chastity: He told me, that as soon as it
was dark, one or more of them appeared in every window, and
distinguished those whom they liked, among the gentlemen that walked
past them, by giving them nosegays; that he, and two gentlemen who were
with him, received so many of these favours, that, at the end of their
walk, which was not a long one, they threw whole hatfuls of them away.
Great allowance must certainly be made for local customs; that which in
one country would be an indecent familiarity, is a mere act of general
courtesy in another; of the fact, therefore, which I have related, I
shall say nothing, but that I am confident it is true.[75]

[Footnote 75: Mr Barrow allows the existence of the fact here stated,
but is decidedly of opinion in favour of the sex implicated by it. In
his judgment, it is merely a harmless remnant of their earlier days. If
so, and far be it from the writer to think otherwise, it betokens the
innocency of fancy much more than the effrontery of licentiousness.
Besides, there is reason to think, that dissoluteness in the particular
now alluded to, among a civilized and luxurious people, seeks
concealment in its gratification, as congenial to its excessive and
morbid sensibility. The opposite to this condition is to be found in
some of the earlier stages of society, where the climate and fertility
of the soil are naturally suitable,--as at Otaheite, when first known to
Europeans. If, however, the terrifying pages of Juvenal may be allowed
authority, there is too much ground for apprehension, that the extremity
of animal indulgence is also one of the fearful symptoms of national
corruption in its lethalio stage. But even this indignant and most
exaltedly moral poet, in his relation of the infamous actions of noble
and royal prostitutes, does not fail to imply the advantages they sought
in deception and secrecy--the night-hood, the yellow veil, and the
cunning artifices of proficient mothers.--E.]

Neither will I take upon me to affirm, that murders are frequently
committed here; but the churches afford an asylum to the criminal: And
as our cockswain was one day looking at two men, who appeared to be
talking together in a friendly manner, one of them suddenly drew a knife
and stabbed the other; who not instantly f