3o6 C O c h i n c h i n a ;
ciety and the abridgment of their physical powers, has pro<-
duced in Cochinchina a. diametrically opposite effect, by
permitting them to revel uncontrolled in every species of
licentiousness. This cause is their being degraded in public
opinion, and considered as beings of an inferior nature to the
men. Thus situated, character becomes of little value either
to themselves or to others ; and, from all accounts, it appears
they are fully sensible of its unimportance in this respect.
The consequence of which is that women of less scrupulosity,
or men of more accommodating dispositions, are not certainly
to be met with in any part of the world than thosè in the environs
of Turon bay. It is to be hoped, however, that the
general character of the nation may not exactly correspond
with that which prevails at one of the- most frequented of its
sea-port towns. The singular indulgence, granted by the
laws of Solon, of permitting young women t,o dispose of personal
favours*;1'for the purpose of enabling them to procuré
articles of the first necessity for themselves or their families^,
is sanctioned by the Cochinchinëse without any limitation, as
to age, condition, or object. Neither the; husband nor the
father seems to have any scruples in abandoning the wife
or the daughter to her’ gallant. Not Galba,, when he politely
fell asleep, (as we axe told by Plutarch,) for the accommodation
of Mecænas and rebuked his servant for officiously
rattling the plates in order’ to awaken him that he might «
what was going on, * could" possibly have been more at hash
than a Cochinchinese husband, to whom may justly be applied
the following lines'of Horace, wherein he describes the
dissolute manners of thé Romans :
( J -OCHIN CH IN A . ,
** Sed jussa coram non sine conscio
u Surgit marito; seu vocat institor
“ Seu navis Hispanse magister
( t Dedecorum pretiosus emptor.”
“ The conscious husband bids her rise,
S When some rich factor courts her charms,
" And calls th% wanton to his arms.
« Then prodigal of wealth and fame,
« Profusely buys the costly shame.”
These observations on the indifference, on the part of the
men, for the honour and chastity of the sex, and the abandoned
and profligate character of the latter which is the necessary
consequence thereof, are by no means confined to the common
people : they apply indeed more forcibly to the first ranks in
society, the officers of government. These men, fully as debauched
as the Chinese Mandarins, carry not even that
appearance of decency which those find it expedient to observe.
Of the facility with which they are disposed to
transfer their women to strangers our party had several
curious instances. Prom the following, among many others,
a tolerably good notion may be collected of the value put
upon them in a pecuniary point of view. An officer of the
Lion was one day sent on shore to purchase a couple of bullocks
for the use of the ship’s company. As the price had previously
been fixed at ten dollars a-head, the officer had only to
count down the money before one.of the magistrates of the place,
and receive his bullocks. The Mandarin, taking up the dollars,
dispatched a couple of his attendants, who shortly returned
with a fine young' girl, whom the magistrate handed over
to the officer. Whether this gentleman’s modesty was too
S B 2
3 ° 7