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GENERAL HABITS

people, when compared with that of the othernatives of the South Seas*, and with savagenations in general, that they do not consignthe heaviest cares and burdens of life to thecharge of the weaker sex ; but, from the mostgenerous motives, take upon themselves allthose laborious or disagreeable tasks which theythink inconsistent with the weakness and deli-cacy of the softer sex. Thus the women ofTonga , knowing how little their own sex inother islands are respected by the men, andhow much better they themselves are treatedby their countrymen, and feeling at the sametime, from this and other causes, a patrioticsentiment, joined to their natural reserve, seldomassociate with foreigners. Thus when the Portau Prince arrived at the Sandwich islands, the'ship was crowded with women ready to bartertheir personal favours for any trinkets theycould obtain; but how different at Lefooga!where only one woman came on board, and shewas one of the lower order, who was in a man-ner obliged to come by order of a native, to

* If there is any exception to this in the South Seas, it iswith the natives of Otaheite , but there neither men nor wo-men work hard : the natives of the latter place appear alto-gether a soft effeminate race, strongly addicted to voluptuoushabits j whilst in Tonga the men are of a more noble andmanly character, and the women considerably more reserved.