"The example of Tahiti is instructive as regards the prevalence of
chastity among peoples of what we generally consider low grades of
civilisation. An early explorer, J. R. Forster (_Observations made on a
voyage round the World_, 1778), speaks of the fine climate and the
beauty of the females, as inviting powerfully to the enjoyments and
pleasures of love. Yet he is over and over again impelled to set down
facts which bear testimony to the virtues of these people. Though rather
effeminate in build they are athletic, he says. Moreover in their wars
they fight with great bravery and valour. They are, for the rest,
hospitable. He remarks that they treat their married women with great
respect, and that women generally are nearly the equals of men, both in
intelligence and social position; he gives a charming description of the
women. 'In short their character,' he concludes, 'is as amiable as that
of any nation that ever came unimproved out of the hands of
Nature'[!]"...
"When Cook," continues Ellis, "who visited Tahiti many times, was among
this 'benevolent, humane' people, he noted their esteem for chastity,
and found that not only were betrothed girls strictly guarded before
marriage, but that men also who had refrained from sexual intercourse
for some time before marriage were believed to pass at death immediately
into the abode of the blessed."
+Radack--one of the Caroline Islands+