792 



ANNUAL REGIS TEB, 1805. 



and English country dances, the 

 native dance of the Indians is some- 

 times performed, the figures and 

 motions of which are very little 

 superior, in point of delicacy, to 

 those of the Otaheitean timoradee. 



The estimated proportion of the 

 sexes at Rio, is eleven women io 

 two men ; this may be attributed to 

 physicial as well as moral causes, 

 for it is a demonstrable fact, that in 

 "warm climates more females are born 

 than males ;* and secondly, the 

 females leading a life of seclusion 

 and temperance, and employed only 

 in domestic ofificcs, are entirely free 

 from the dangers, and but little sub- 

 ject to the diseases which destroy 

 the other sex. While the men are 

 occupied in the hazardous pursuit of 

 honour or of fortune in distant 

 countries, from whence they 



are 

 often doomed never to return, the 

 women are born and die without 

 ever quitting their paternal roof. 



In the females of Brasil, as well 

 as of other countries in tlie torrid 

 zone, there is no resting time be- 

 tween the periods of perfection and 

 decline ; like the delicate fruits of 

 the soil, the genial warmth of the 

 sun forces them to a premature 

 ripeness, and after a momentary 

 bloom, sinks them towards decay : at 

 fourteen they become motliers, at 

 sixteen the blossoms of their beauty 

 are full blown, and at twenty they 

 are withered like the faded rose in 

 autumn. Thus the lives of three of 

 these daughters of the sun, are 

 scarce equal to that of one Euro- 

 pean ; among the former, the period 

 of their bodily perfections far pre- 

 cedes that of their mental ones. 



in the latter they accompany each 

 other hand in hand. These princi- 

 ples, doubtless, influenced the wise 

 law-givers of the east in their per- 

 mission of polygamy ; tor, in the 

 torid zone, should a man be circum- 

 scribed to one wife, he must pass 

 nearly two thirds of his days united 

 to a disgusting mummy, useless to 

 society, else the depravity of human 

 nature, joined to the irritation of 

 unsatisfied passions, would lead him 

 to get rid of the incumbrance by 

 clandestine means. This confinement 

 to a singe wife, in the European 

 settlements of Asia and Ameraca, is 

 one of the principal causes of the 

 unbounded licentiousness in the 

 men, and the spirit of intrigue in 

 the women. In the Brasils, the 

 licentious intercourse of the sexes 

 perhaps equals what we are told 

 prevailed in the most degenerate 

 period of imperial Rome. The pri- 

 niinary cause of this general cor- 

 ruption of manners, must be re- 

 ferred to climate, which acts forcibly 

 in giving strength to the physical 

 properties of love. In proportion 

 as the passion for enjoyment is ex- 

 cited, the fear of losing the object 

 which confers it is increased, and 

 hence proceeds the constitutional 

 jealousy of men in warm climates. 

 In the Brasils, the moment a girl is 

 betrothed, she becomes subject to 

 all the restraints imposed by this 

 rankling passion ; and should the 

 absence of her intended husband be 

 unavoidable, previous to the nuptial 

 ceremony, he often causes her io be 

 immured within the walls of a con- 

 vent till his return. By such suspi-- 



cions, he too often creates the evil 



he 



* Speculative writers liave eiiher doubted or denied this assumption, but the ob- 

 servation of thojie who have resided many years in Asia, fully authorize our statiug 

 it as a " fact capable of dcmonstrauon," 



