Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The young girls, whenever they can collect eight or ten together, dance a very indecent dance,
which they call
Timorodee
, singing most indecent songs and using most indecent actions, in the
practice of which they are brought up from earliest childhood. In doing this they keep time to a great
nicety. This exercise is, however, generally left off as soon as they arrive at years of maturity, for as
soon as they have formed a connection with man they are expected to leave off dancing
Timorodee.
One amusement or custom I must mention, though I must confess I do not expect to be believed,
as it is founded upon a custom so inhuman and contrary to the principles of human nature. It is this:
that more than one half of the better sort of inhabitants have entered into a resolution of enjoying
free liberty in love, without being troubled or disturbed by its consequences. These mix and cohabit
together with the utmost freedom, and the children who are so unfortunate as to be thus begot are
smothered at the moment of their birth. Many of these people contract intimacies and live together
as man and wife for years, in the course of which the children that are born are destroyed. They are
so far from concealing it that they rather look upon it as a branch of freedom upon which they value
themselves. They are called
Arreoys
, and have meetings among themselves where the men amuse
themselves with wrestling, etc., and the women in dancing the indecent dance before-mentioned, in
the course of which they give full liberty to their desires.
During the first voyage, Cook also encountered the aborigines of Australia and wrote about them.
From what I have said of the natives of New Holland [Australia] they may appear to some to be
the most wretched people upon earth; but in reality they are far more happier than we Europeans,
being wholly unacquainted not only with the superfluous but the necessary conveniences so much
sought after in Europe; they are happy in not knowing the use of them. They live in a tranquility
which is not disturbed by the inequality of conditions. The earth and sea of their own accord fur-
nishes them with all things necessary for life.
What Is the International Date Line?
Time, as we think of it today, is a relatively recent invention. The internationally accepted “standard” time
was established a little more than a hundred years ago. Before then, people in different places set their
clocks—another fairly recent invention—to arbitrary notions of the hour, which usually came from when
the sun entered their area. There was a time, for instance, when clocks in Camden, New Jersey, were set
differently from those in nearby Philadelphia.
As the world entered the modern scientific age, the advent of oceanic navigation, steamship timetables,
telegraphic communication, and train schedules all demanded coordination; the world needed to get on one
time standard. In 1883, they did it and cleverly called it standard time.
Meeting in Washington, DC, the time setters divided the world into twenty-four zones of one hour each,
the time it takes the sun to cross each zone. These zones were located 15˚ of longitude apart (360˚ divided
by 24 hours equals 15˚). Because a starting point was needed, Greenwich (near London), site of the most
prominent astronomical observatory of its day, was selected as 0˚—the prime meridian. Lines of longitude
were then counted either east or west from Greenwich. Since the sun rises in the east, the day began there.
At any given hour, standard time is later in the day in points to the east, earlier in points to the west.
In practical terms, that means when it is 5
P.M.
in London, it is 10
P.M.
in Karachi, Pakistan, five time
zones to the east. At the same moment, in Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia, and Manila in the Philip-
