It is, I believe, universally allowed, that the women, both of the Spanish and Portuguese settlements in South America, make less difficulty of granting personal favours, than those of any other civilized country in the world.  Of the ladies of this town, some have formed so unfavourable an opinion as to declare, that they did 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 falling, the murderer withdrew the weapon, and stabbed him a second time.  He then ran away, and was pursued by some negroes, who were also witnesses of the fact; but whether he escaped or was taken I never heard.