Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/445

] settlement. The iron rod, with which they crush those miserable people, has reduced them so nearly to the condition of slavery, that it will not excite surprize, if we observe in them some of the vices which originate in that state of human degradation.

Although those people be habituated to resign almost every thing they possess to the Europeans, there is one article which they are not disposed to resign to them. Jealousy reigns among them to an extreme, which makes any indiscreet proposal to their women very dangerous. In such a case no dread of punishment would prevent them from executing their vengeance.

The Dutch men preserve their European clothes as a sort of ceremonial dress; but they have all vests with sleeves, in order that they may conveniently throw off their coats, when the master of the house, to which they happen to be invited, sets them the example. On such occasions, those who wear wigs, lay them aside, and put on large caps of very fine linen. The European women over a petticoat, which falls very low, wear a gown made like a shirt, as long as the petticoat, and which being divided in the fore part, is kept close to the body by a girdle. Their hair is formed into a spiral behind the head, and fattened with two large pins, which cross each other. Such