424 



R E M A R K S 



ON 



T tt E 



L 



MANNERS monogamy was moll univerfally introduced among the various nations 



of the South-Sea. There were> I believe, inflanccs, efpecially 



the people of quality, " that a man endeavoured to have a love-, 

 ith /ome of the many females, who were always 1-eady to 



among 



aifai 



r vvi 



gratify fu-ch votaries on the iirfl application,; but 1 never heard. 



4;hat a married woman eVer yielded to ^the embraces of any 



lover. 



As polygarny is fo very -common in all hot climates, and likewife 

 among all barbarous nationSj where womefi are looked upon as pri- 

 vate property ; it might appear very remarkable, that in the ifles df 

 -the South-Sea, lying in a hot climate, where luxury had made a 

 Gonfiderable progTefs, and where -the ii 



hab 



were remarkably 



addided to Venery ; or at New-Zeelaild, and in the mdfe Wefterfi 



\ 



ifles, where women were lefs efteemed, polyganiy ihould not have 

 •been introduced. Th-e reafons of this extraordinary phenomenon 

 are in rny opinion to be looked for, firfl, in the more gentle and 

 fweet manners of their females; fecondly, in the equal proportion 

 •of females to males exifting in thefe ifles ; and laflly, in the great 



I 



facility df parting with a wife, and taking another in her ftead, of 



■ 



which we had feveral examples. X)-Amo, the hufband of O-Poorea, 

 had another wife when we came to O-Taheitee; nor was fhe with- 



perfon who a6led the part of a hufband 



Potatou had taken 



'WaineebUy ^rid 



with his wife Polatehera, who lived wi 



ith 



Maheine a young Oraiedea Chief. But I find myfelf obliged here 



to 



