% % Such were our Matins our Indians thought fit to perform
Vefpers of a very different kind. A young man, near fix feet
high, performed the rites of Venus 'with a little girl about
eleven or twelve years of age, before feveral of our people,
and a great number of the natives, without the leaft fenfe o f
its being indecent or improper, but, as appeared, in perfedt
conformity to the cuffoni of the place. Among the fpedla-
tors were feveral women of fuperior rank, particularly Obe-
rea, who may properly be faid to have affifted at the ceremony;
for they gave inftruftions to the girl how to perform
her part, which, young as ihe was, Ihe did not feern much to
Hand in need of.
This incident is not mentioned' as an objeA o f idle curio-
fity, but as it deferves confideration in determining a quef-
tion which has been long debated in philofophy; Whether
the Ihame attending certain actions, which are allowed on
all fides to be in themfelves innocent, is implanted in Nature,
or fupe-rinduced by cuftom ? If it has its origin in cuf-
tom, it will, perhaps, be found difficult to trace that, cuftom,
however general, to its fource; i f in inftinft, it will be*
equally difficult to difcover from what caufe it is fubdued or
at leaft over-ruled among thefe people, in whofe manners
not the leaft trace of it is to be found.
Monday ij. On the 14th and 15th, we had another opportunity of ob-
ferving the general knowlege which thefe people had o fJ
any defign that was formed among them. In the night between
the 13th and 14th, one of the water-caiks was ftolen
from the outfide of the fort: in the morning, there was not
an Indian to be feen who did not know that it was gone;
yet they appeared not to have been trufted, or not to have
been worthy of truft; for they feemed all of them difpofed
to give intelligence where it might be found. Mr. Banks
traced •
traced it to a part of the bay where he was told it had been »769-
put into a canoe, but as it was not of great confequence he » ■
did not complete the difcovery. When he returned, he was Mo"da5, '?•
told by Tubourai Tamaide, that another calk would be ftolen
before the morning: how he came by this knowlege it is
not eafy to imagine; that he was not a party in the defign is
certain; for he came with his wife and his family to the
place where the water calks ftood, and placing their beds
near them, he faid> he would himfelf be a pledge for their
fafety, in defpight of the thief: of this, however, we would.
not admit; and making them underftand that a fentry would
be placed to watch the calks till the morning, he removed:
the beds into Mr. Banks’s tent, where he and his family fpent
the night,, making figns to the fentry when he retired, that
he fhould keep his eyes open. In the night this intelligence
appeared to be true; about twelve o’clock the thief Came,,
but difcovering that a watch had. been fet, he went away
without his booty.
Mr. Banks’s confidence in Tubourai Tamaide had greatly
increafed fince the affair of the knife, in confequence of
which he was at length expofed to temptations which neither
his integrity nor his honour was able to refill. They
had withftood many allurements, but were at length en-
fnared by the fafcinating charms of a balket of nails ; thefe
nails were much larger than-any that had yet been brought
into trade, and had, with perhaps fome degree of criminal'
negligence, been left in a corner of Mr. Banks’s tent, to
which the Chief had always free accefs. One o f thefe nails ■
Mr. Banks’s fervant happened to fee in his pollellion, upon,
his having inadvertently, thrown back that part of his garment
under which it was concealed. Mr. Banks being told
of this, and knowing that no fuch thing had been giveri
6 him,,