312 THE LIFE OF 



ftopping at thefe low intrigues, would foon in- 

 vade the females of fuperior rank, which would 

 be a fufficient caution to fathers and hufbands, 

 "whofe youth had been fpent in iiinilar exploits, 

 to truft more to locks and bolts than to male 

 continence and female chaflity. 



There are feveral theatres in Lifbon, one of 

 which is very fine, but no women are allowed 

 to perform on the ftage ; to fupply their want 

 they employ the moft delicate boys and young 

 men, who, at the diftance of the boxes, arc not 

 to be diftinguifhed from women. This cuflom 

 may poflibly have given rife to an abominable 

 vice, which is (hockingly frequent here. 



There is a dock-yard which is faid to be very 

 good, but I never faw it, except when I was 

 "weak enough to go there through the contri- 

 vance oi Manique I but certainly the fhips built 

 there are extremely handfome while tiew. When 

 they have been at fea a few years they, however, 

 lofe their fhape, and become what the failors 

 call hogged y that is, inftead of forming a beau- 

 tiful curve, loweft in the middle and higher at 

 the flem and ftern ; the ends fall and the mid- 

 dle rifes, fo as to refemble, in fome degree, 

 the back of a hog. This defed: I have heard 

 attributed, with what juftice I know not, to the 

 enormous weight of their guns ; for though 

 their iron is fo much better than, ours, that, 



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