and cleanliness, health and vivacity. From the excesses of the husbands, the Creole ladies generally appear in mourning weeds at a very early period, with the agreeable privilege of making another choice in hopes of a better partner, nor indeed are they ever long without another mate. Such is the superior longevity of females at Surinam, (owing as before mentioned, to the excesses,) that widows may frequently be met with who have buried four husbands; but you will scarcely ever meet with a man who has survived two wives. The ladies do not, however, always bear with the most becoming patience the slights and insults they thus meet with in the expectation of a sudden relief, but mostly persecute their successful sable rivals with the most implacable hatred, and even on bare suspicion with the most unrelenting cruelty; while they chastise their partners, not only with an ineffable show of contempt, but also with giving, in public, the most unequivocal marks of preference towards those gentlemen who newly arrive from Europe, which occasions the trite proverb and observation in the colony, that the tropical ladies and the mosquitoes have an instinctive preference for the newly-arrived Europeans. This partiality is in

deed so very extreme, and the proofs of it so very numerous and apparent, that some command of temper is necessary to prevent that disgust which such a behaviour must naturally excite, particularly where the object is not very inviting; nay, it was once publicly reported at Paramaribo, that two of these tropical Amazons had fought a duel for one of our officers.

"In this colony, when a negro is purchased, and attached to any estate, he acquires a right of settlement, and in youth and old age is maintained, clothed, and lodged. The old settled estates can boast of having reared negroes of three and four generations. Some negroes, not being able to accommodate themselves with wives on the estate where they were settled, were sent for to Stabroek, and taken to a salc-1oom, where a cargo of negroes was just landed, and there made choice of wives, which their masters paid for. Two chose pretty women, and the third an ordinary one. On asking him why he did not prefer a handsome wife, he replied, "No, massa, me no want wife for handsome, me want her for to do me good, and work for massa as well as me." She was a stout young woman, and turned out much better than the other two."

When an Indian of Guyana marries, he is perfectly indifferent about the virginity of his wife; but after his marriage he expects fidelity to his bed; and so strong is the influence of opinion, that adultery is very uncommon, although it is not forbidden by any part of their religious tenets. Polygamy is universally allowed; but an Indian is never seen with two young wives; the only case in which he takes a second, is when the first has become old.

Pigafetta, in his Voyage round the World, remarks, that when he was at the Brazils, that the natives universally, for a hatchet or cutlas, offered them one or more of their daughters, but never their wives, nor indeed would the latter consent to have connexion with any but their husbands; for, notwithstanding the freedom allowed to unmarried girls, when married, so great is their modesty, that they never submit to the embraces even of those to whom they are espoused, but under the veil of night. They are subject to the most laborious toil, but are always accompanied by their husbands, who are extremely jealous. Their simplicity is easily demonstrated by their supposing that the boats, which either hung from the sides or followed the ship, were children of the vessel, and nourished from the hull.

At PORT DES FRANÇAIS, in the Brazils, Peyrouse says, the women are subjected to the greatest hardships, and perform the most laborious offices, suffering the utmost indignity from the men. Tattooing is not in general use among them; but all the women have their lower lip slit at the root of the gums, the whole width of the mouth; they wear a kind of small wooden bowl, which rests against the gums, to which the cut lip serves for a support, so that the lower part of the mouth juts out two or three inches; but none but married women are allowed to wear this mouth ornament, the young girls having only a needle in the lower lip. They may sometimes be prevailed upon to remove this bowl ornament, though not without much persuasion; they then testified the same embarrassment, and made the same gestures that a female in Europe would upon the uncovering her bosom, or any other act esteemed immodest; the lower lip then fell upon the chin, and this second picture was no way more enchanting than the former.

Peyrouse informs us, that the women of BAY DE CASTRIES are not subjected to any labour, which, like American Indian females, might change the elegance of their features, if nature

had furnished them with this advantage. Their whole cares are limited to the cutting and sewing of their clothes, disposing of fish to be dried, and taking care of their children, to whom they give the breast till three or four years of age. The writer expresses his surprise at seeing one of this age, who, after having bent a small bow, shot an arrow with tolerable exactness, and, giving a dog several blows with a stick, threw himself on his mother's breast, and took the situation of a child five or six months old. The sex seemed to enjoy no considerable advantages among them. They never concluded any bargain with us without first consulting their wives; the pendant silver ear-rings, and copper trinkets,. are peculiarly reserved for their wives and daughters. The dress of the women consists of a large nankeen robe, or a salmon skin, which they have the art of dressing so as to be extremely supple. This dress reaches as far as the ancle, and is sometimes bordered with a small fringe of copper ornaments, which make a noise similar to that of bells.

In that part of South America called PARAGUAY, the women are allowed to propose matches as well the men. When an Indian woman likes