PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
6 j 
that we had stronger claims on them in this respect than those 
who had generously given them up entirely to us during our 
stay among them. Go into their houses, you might there see 
instances of the strongest affection of wives for their husbands 
and husbands for their wives, parents for their daughters, and 
daughters for their parents; but at the camp they met as perfect 
strangers: all our men appeared to have a right to all their wo¬ 
men, provided they could agree among themselves; every woman 
was left at her own disposal, and every thing pertaining to her 
person was considered as her own exclusive property. Virtue 
among them, in the light which we view it, was unknown, and 
they attached no shame to a proceeding which they not only con¬ 
sidered as natural, but as an innocent and harmless amusement, 
by which no one was injured: many parents considered themselves 
as honoured by the preference given to their daughters, and tes¬ 
tified their pleasure by large presents of hogs and fruit, which 
to them must have appeared munificent. With the young and 
timid virgins, no coercive measures were used by their parents 
to compel them to make any sacrifices, but endearing and sooth¬ 
ing persuasions enforced by rewards, were frequently adopted to 
overcome their fears. With the common sailors and their girls 
all was helter skelter, and promiscuous intercourse, every girl 
the wife of every man in the mess, and frequently of every man 
in the ship; each one from time to time took such as suited his 
fancy and convenience, and no one among them formed a con¬ 
nection which was likely to produce tears at the moment of sepa¬ 
ration. With those of a superior class, the case was different; 
the connections formed were respectable, and although their fair 
friends delighted in playing, on every occasion, little tricks of in¬ 
fidelity, which they coiisidered as perfectly harmless, still they 
showed a fondness for the person with whom they were connect¬ 
ed, and the parting in several instances, I am sure, occasioned 
tears of real sorrow. 
I must however do them the justice to say that in practising, 
the little infidelities above mentioned, they did not appear sensible 
of doing an injury to their lover; they were done as acts of re¬ 
taliation on some of their female acquaintances; they were al¬ 
ways flattered by a preference given them, and this preference ex\~ 
