Captain Cook, at Tahiti, in 1769, after performing Divine service
on Sunday, witnessed "Vespers of a very different kind. A young
man, near six feet high, performed the rites of Venus with a
little girl about eleven or twelve years of age, before several
of our people and a great number of the natives, without the
least sense of its being indecent or improper, but, as it
appeared, in perfect conformity to the custom of the place. Among
the spectators were several women of superior rank, who may
properly be said to have assisted at the ceremony; for they gave
instructions to the girl how to perform her part, which, young as
she was, she did not seem much to stand in need of." (J.
Hawkesworth, _Account of the Voyages_, etc., 1775, vol. i, p.
469.)

At Tahiti, according to Cook, it was customary to "gratify every
appetite and passion before witnesses," and it is added, "in the
conversation of these people, that which is the principal source
of their pleasure is always the principal topic; everything is
mentioned without any restraint or emotion, and in the most
direct terms, by both sexes." (Hawkesworth, op. cit., vol ii, p.
45.)

"I have observed," Captain Cook wrote, "that our friends in the
South Seas have not even the idea of indecency, with respect to
any object or any action, but this was by no means the case with
the inhabitants of New Zealand, in whose carriage and
conversation there was as much modest reserve and decorum with
respect to actions, which yet in their opinion were not criminal,
as are to be found among the politest people in Europe. The women