COOK'S FIRST VOYAGE APRIL, 



entrails of sheep round their legs, as they have been 

 said to do, and afterwards make them part of their 

 food. Semicastration was also absolutely denied to 

 be general ; but it was acknowledged that some 

 among the particular nation which knew how to 

 melt copper had suffered that operation, who were 

 said to be the best warriors, and particularly to excel 

 in the art of throwing stones. 



We were very desirous to determine the great 

 question among natural historians, whether the 

 women of this country have or have not that fleshy 

 flap or apron which has been called the Sinus pudoris, 

 and what we learnt I shall relate. Many of the 

 Dutch and Malays, who said they had received favours 

 from Hottentot women, positively denied its exist- 

 ence ; but a physician of the place declared that he 

 had cured many hundreds of venereal complaints, and 

 never saw one without two fleshy, or rather skinny 

 appendages, proceeding from the upper part of the 

 labia, in appearance somewhat resembling the teats 

 of a cow, but flat ; they hung down, he said, before 

 the pudendum, and were in different subjects of dif- 

 ferent lengths, in some not more than half an inch, 

 in others, three or four inches : these he imagined to 

 be what some writers have exaggerated into a flap, 

 or apron, hanging down from the bottom of the 

 abdomen, of sufficient extent to render an artificial 

 covering of the neighbouring parts unnecessary. 



This much for the country, its productions, and 

 inhabitants. The bay is large, safe, and commodious; 

 it lies open indeed to the north-west winds, but they 

 seldom blow hard; yet as they sometimes send in a 

 great sea, the ships moor N. E. and S. W., so as to 

 have an open hawser with north-west winds: the 

 south-east winds blow frequently with great violence, 

 but as the direction is right out of the bay, they are 

 not dangerous. Near the town a wharf of wood is 

 run out to a proper distance for the convenience of 

 landing and shipping goods. To this wharf water is 

 conveyed in pipes, from which several boats mav fill 



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