Note 3 — Chapter XXIII
Reading edition
Cook says—“Great injustice has been done the women of Otaheite, and the Society Isles. The favours of married women, and also the unmarried of the better sort are as difficult to be obtained here, as in any other country whatever. I must, however, allow, that they are all completely versed in the art of coquetry, and that very few of them fix any bounds to their conversation. It is therefore no wonder that they have obtained the character of libertines.”
In the excellent descriptions of Turnbull, we read:—“Much has been said as to the licentiousness and loose conduct of the women. It is but justice to say, that I saw nothing of this. Their ideas of decency are doubtless very different from ours; they must be judged therefore by a very different standard.”