xl 



PREFACE. 



hienas, or women, were entirely at their service.' Captaia 

 Porter's promises to his ship's company were here amply 

 fultilled. There were no scruples on his part ; none of 

 course, on the part of the crew ; he sees no harm in giving 

 countenance to the moral depravity of ignorant savages — 

 but we must here pause, and draw a veil over his proceed- 

 ings. We cannot pollute our pages with the description 

 which Porter gives of his transactions with these people. 

 His language and his ideas are so gross and indelicate, so 

 utterly unfit for this hemisphere, that we must leave the un- 

 divided enjoyment of this part of his book to his own coun- 

 trymen. We are at a loss to determine which is most dis- 

 gusting and offensive — his nauseous ribaldry, or his impudent 

 avowal of his improper conduct. ' If,' says he, ' there was 

 any crime, the offence was ours, not theirs ; they acted in 

 compliance with the customs of their ancestors ; we depart- 

 ed from those principles of virtue and morality, which are so 

 highly esteemed in civilization.' It was enough, he thinks, 

 that 'each confined himself to one object, and she of the 

 best family and rank ;' which, he says, ' was as much as the 

 most zealous celebiale' could require — but more than enough 

 of this profligate, this pernicious trash." 



After premising that nothing in this or the former 

 edition of the Journal, can possibly justify the 

 language of this extract, the author will proceed to 

 give a few specimens from Cook, Solander, Forster^ 

 Parkinson, and others, to show with how little jus- 

 tice he is accused of this extraordinary degree of mo- 

 ral turpitude. Man must have some standard of mo- 

 rality ; and when placed in new and untried situa- 

 tions, beyoj^d the sphere of the ordinary restraints of 

 society, this standard is principally to be found in the 

 conduct of those who have been placed in similar cir- 

 cumstances, and left behind them a character for jus- 

 tice and humanity. Surely, if he does not exceed the 

 latitude assumed by these, it is the height of preju- 

 dice and malevolence, lo stigmatize him with such 

 imputations as have been poured on the author, and 

 the extreme of folly to illustrate his turpitude, by 



