of the Romish ecclesiastics.[132] Many of the children had fine features, and were thought pretty; but of the persons of the women, especially those advanced in years, a less favourable report was made.  However, some of the gentlemen belonging to the Discovery, I was told, paid their addresses, and made liberal offers of presents, which were rejected with great disdain; whether from a sense of virtue, or the fear of displeasing their men, I shall not pretend to determine.  That this gallantry was not very agreeable to the latter, is certain; for an elderly man, as soon as he observed it, ordered all the women and children to retire, which they obeyed, though some of them shewed a little reluctance.

[Footnote 132:  Captain Cook’s account of the natives of Van Diemen’s Land, in this chapter, no doubt proves that they differ, in many respects, as he says, from the inhabitants of the more northerly parts of the east coast of New Holland, whom he met with in his first voyage.  It seems very remarkable, however, that the only woman any of his people came close to, in Botany Bay, should have her hair cropped short, while the man who was with her, is said to have had the hair of his head bushy, and his beard long and rough.  Could the natives of Van Diemen’s Land be more accurately described, than by saying that the hair of the men’s heads is bushy, and their beards long and rough, and that the women’s hair is cropped short?  So far north, therefore, as Botany Bay, the natives of the east coast of New Holland seem to resemble those of Van Diemen’s Land, in this circumstance.—­D.]

This conduct of Europeans amongst savages, to their women, is highly blameable; as it creates a jealousy in their men, that may be attended with consequences fatal to the success of the common enterprise, and to the whole body of adventurers, without advancing the private purpose of the individual, or enabling him to gain the object of his wishes.  I believe it has been generally found among uncivilized people, that where the women are easy of access, the men are the first to offer them to strangers; and that, where this is not the case, neither the allurement of presents, nor the opportunity of privacy, will be likely to have the desired effect.  This observation, I am sure, will hold good, throughout all the parts of the South Sea where I have been.  Why then should men act so absurd a part, as to risk their own safety, and that of all their companions, in pursuit of a gratification which they have no probability of obtaining?[133]

[Footnote 133:  In uncivilized nations, the women are completely subservient to the power and desires of the men, without seeming to possess, or to be allowed, a will or thought of their own.  Amongst them, therefore, the primitive mode of temptation must be reversed, and the husband is first to be gained over.  When this is done, all that follows, is understood and intended by him, as a sort of temporary barter;