'This conduct,' says he, 'of Europeans among savages, to their women, is highly blamable; as it creates a jealousy in their men, that may be attended with consequences fatal to the success of the common enterprise, and to the whole body of adventures, without advancing the private purpose of the individual, or enabling him to gain the object of his wishes.

I believe it has generally been found, amongst uncivilized people, that where the women are easy of access, the men are the first to offer them to strangers; and that, where this is not the case, neither the allurements of presents, nor the opportunity of privacy will be likely to have the desired effect.

This observation, I am sure, will hold good throughout all the parts of the South Sea where I have been.

Why then should men act so absurd a part, as to risk their own safety, and that of all their companions, in pursuit of a gratification, which they have no probability of obtaining ?' While our navigators were at Van Dieman's Land, they were successful in obtaining a plentiful crop of grass for their cattle, and such as was far more excellent than what they had met with at their first going on shore.

The quantity collected was judged by the captain to be sufficient to last till his arrival in New-Zealand.
Van Dieman's Land had been visited twice before.