Читать книгу The English Colony in New South Wales (Vol. 1&2). Narrative of the British First Settlement in Australia 1788-1801 онлайн

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Attentions to the women were perhaps carried farther in this place than is customary in Europe. To a lady, in the presence of a gentleman, a servant never was suffered to hand even a glass of water, the gentleman (with a respect approaching to adoration) performing that office; and these gallantries appeared to be received as the homage due to their superior rank in the creation. It was said, indeed, that they were not disinclined to intrigues, but in public the strictest decorum and propriety of behaviour was always observed in the women, single as well as married. At houses where several people of both sexes were met together, the eye, on entering the room, was instantly hurt, at perceiving the female part of the company ranged and seated by themselves on one side, and the gentlemen on the other, an arrangement certainly unfavourable to private or particular conversation. These daughters of the sun should, however, neither be censured nor wondered at, if found indulging in pleasures against which even the constitutions of colder regions are not proof. If frozen chastity be not always found among the children of ice and snow, can she be looked for among the inhabitants of climates where frost was never felt? Yet heartily should she be welcomed wherever she may be found, and doubly prized if met with unexpectedly.