THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
103 
the individual, or enabling him to gain the object of his i 777 , 
withes. I believe it has been generally found amongft un- , J anuary ' 
civilized people, that where the women are eafy of accefs, 
the men are the firft to offer them to ftrangers ; and that, 
where this is not the cafe, neither the allurement of pre- 
fents, nor the opportunity of privacy, will be likely to have 
the delired effedt. This obfervation, I am fure, will hold 
good, throughout all the parts of the South Sea where I have 
been. Why then fhould men adt fo abfurd a part, as to rilk 
their own fafety, and that of all their companions, in pur- 
fuit of a gratification which they have no probability of 
obtaining ? 
In the afternoon I went again to the grafs-cutters, to for¬ 
ward their work. I found them then upon Penguin Ifland, 
where they had met with a plentiful crop of excellent grafs. 
We laboured hard till fun-fet, and then repaired on board, 
fatisfied with the quantity we had colledted, and which I 
judged fufficient to laft till our arrival in New Zealand. 
During our whole ftay, we had either calms or light airs 
from the Eaftward. Little or no time, therefore, was loft 
by my putting in at this place. For if I had kept the fea, 
we fhould not have been twenty leagues advanced farther 
on our voyage. And, fhort as our continuance was here, 
it has enabled me to add fomewhat to the imperfedt ac¬ 
quaintance that hath hitherto been acquired, with this part 
of the globe. 
Van Diemen’s Land has been twice vifited before. It was 
fo named by Tafman, who difcovered it in November 1642. 
From that time it had efcaped all farther notice by Euro¬ 
pean navigators, till Captain Furneaux touched at it in 
March 1773. I hardly need fay, that it is the Southern 
point of New Holland, which, if it doth not deferve the 
name 
