If This Dress Had Not Entirely That Perfect Form, So Justly Admired In The Draperies Of The Ancient Greek Statues, It Was However Infinitely Superior To Our Expectations, And Much More Advantageous To The Human Figure, Than Any Modern Fashion We Had Hitherto Seen."

"It was not long before some of these good people came aboard.

That peculiar gentleness of disposition, which is their general characteristic, immediately manifested itself in all their looks and actions, and gave full employment to those who made the human heart their study. They expressed several marks of affection in their countenance, took hold of our hands, leaned on our shoulders, or embraced us. They admired the whiteness of our bodies, and frequently pushed aside our clothes from the breast, as if to convince themselves that we were made like them." According to this gentleman, it was the women of the "baser sort," who yielded without difficulty to the solicitations of the sailors. "Some of them," says he, "who came on board for this purpose, seemed not to be above nine or ten years old, and had not the least marks of puberty. So early an acquaintance with the world seems to argue an uncommon degree of voluptuousness, and cannot fail of affecting the nation in general. The effect, which was immediately obvious to me, was the low stature of the common class of people, to which all these prostitutes belonged. Among this whole order, we saw few persons above the middle size, and many below it; an observation which confirms what M. de Buffon has very judiciously said on the subject of early connections of the sexes. Their features were very irregular, and, in general, very ordinary, except the eyes, which were always large and full of vivacity; but a natural smile, and a constant endeavour to please, had so well supplied the want of beauty, that our sailors were perfectly captivated, and carelessly disposed of their shirts and clothes, to gratify their mistresses. The simplicity of their dress, &c. might contribute to this attraction; and the view of several of these nymphs swimming all nimbly round the sloop, such as nature had formed them, was perhaps more than sufficient entirety to subvert the little reason which a mariner might have left to govern his passions. As trifling circumstances had given occasion to their taking the water. One of the officers on the quarter-deck intended to drop a bead into a canoe for a little boy about six years old; by accident it missed the boat and fell into the sea, but the child immediately leaped overboard, and diving after it, brought it up again. To reward his performance, we dropped some more beads to him, which so tempted a number of men and women, that they amused us with amazing feats of agility in the water, and not only fetched up several beads scattered at once, but likewise large nails, which, on account of their weight, descended quickly to a considerable depth.

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