And here let me be indulged in the spontaneous effusions of a heart still affected with the loss of a loving and a beloved brother, while I declare how I have heard many of the surviving companions of this amiable young man dwell with pleasure on the relation of his singular simplicity of conduct, his sincere regard for truth, his ardent thirst after knowledge, his indefatigable industry to obtain it, and his generous disposition in freely communicating, with the most friendly participation, to others, that information which perhaps none but himself could have obtained. That this is more than probable will appear, on comparing the different manner in which Sydney and his associates passed their time, in the most interesting situations. While many others, for want of a more innocent curiosity or amusement, were indulging themselves in those sensual gratifications, which are so easily obtained among the female part of uncivilized nations, we find him gratifying no other passion than that of a laudable curiosity; which enabled him inoffensively to employ his time, and escape those snares into which the vicious appetites of some others betrayed them. It doth equal honour to his ingenuousness and ingenuity, to find him protected by his own innocence, securely exercising his pleasing art amidst a savage, ignorant, and hostile, people; engaging their attention by the powers of his pencil, disarming them of their native ferocity, and rendering them even serviceable to the great end of the voyage, in chearfully furnishing him with the choicest productions of the soil and climate, which neither force nor stratagem might otherwise have procured.

By such honest arts and mild demeanor he soon acquired the confidence of the inhabitants of most places, at which the voyagers went on shore; obtaining thus, as as I am well informed, with remarkable facility, the knowledge of many words in various languages, hitherto little, if at all, known in Europe.

Voyaging Accounts