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; and the favours of his wife, or daughter, are valued by him just in the proportion they are sought for by those with whom he is dealing. But where his animal necessities can scarcely be supplied, it cannot be imagined that he will be very sensible to the force of toys and trinkets as objects of temptation. These, on the other hand, will carry most persuasion, where, through the greater bounty of nature, an avenue has been opened for the display of vanity and the love of ornament. Any opposition on the female part in either case, is of no avail as a barrier against strangers, as he who is most concerned to protect it, finds his account in its sacrifice. We have instances of both in Captain Cook's voyages.--E.] In the afternoon I went again to the grass-cutters, to forward their work. I found them then upon Penguin Island, where they had met with a plentiful crop of excellent grass. We laboured hard till sun-set, and then repaired on board, satisfied with the quantity we had collected, and which I judged sufficient to last till our arrival in New Zealand. During our whole stay, we had either calms or light airs from the eastward. Little or no time, therefore, was lost by my putting in at this place. For if I had kept the sea, we should not have been twenty leagues advanced farther on our voyage. And, short as our continuance was here, it has enabled me to add somewhat to the imperfect acquaintance that hath hitherto been acquired, with this part of the globe.