T H E P A C I F I C O C E A N. lo^ 



J 



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of adventurers, without advancing the private purpofe of ^^777- 



. . January. 



the individual, or enabUng him to gain the objecft of his 

 wifhes. I believe it has been generally found amongft un- 

 civilized people, that where the women are eafy of accef?, 

 the men are the firil to oiFer them to Grangers ; and that, 

 where this is not the cafe, neither the allurement of pre- 

 fents, nor the opportunity of privacy, will be likely to have 

 the defired efFecfl. This obfervation, I am fure,. will hold 

 good, throughout all the parts of the South Sea where I have 

 been. Why then fliould men adl fo abfurd a part, as to rifle 

 their own fafety, and that of all their companions, in pur- 

 fuit of a gratification which they have no probability of 

 obtaining ? 



In the afternoon I went again to the grafs-cutters, to for- 

 ward their work. I found them then upon Penguin Ifland, 

 where they had met with a plentiful crop of excellent grafsi 

 We laboured hard till fun-fet, and then repaired on board, 

 fatisficd with tlie quantity we had collected, and which I 

 judged fufficient to lad till our arrival in New Zealand. 



During our whole ftay, we had either calms or light airs 

 from the Eaftward. Little or no time, therefore, was lofl 

 by my putting in at this place. For if I had kept the fea, 

 we fliould not have been twenty leagues advanced farther 

 on our voyage. And, fliort as our continuance was here, 

 it has enabled me to add fomewhat to the imperfect ac- 

 quaintance that hath hitherto been acquired, with this part 

 of the globe. 



Van Diemen's Land has been twice vifited before. It was 

 fo named by Tafman, who difcovered it inNovember 1642. 

 From that time it had efcaped all farther notice by Euro- 

 pean navigators, till Captain Furneaux touched at it in 



Marchi 



