C H A P .
IV.
Dec.
1823.
height is five feet ten inches; the tallest person is six feet and one quarter
of an inch ; and the shortest of the adults is five feet nine inches
and one-eighth. Their limbs are well-proportioned, round, and straight;
their feet tui-ning a little inwards. The boys promise to be equally as
tall as their fathers; one of them whom we measured was, at eight years of
age, four feet one inch; and another, at nine years, four feet three inches.
Their simple food and early habits of exercise give them a muscular
power and activity not often surpassed. It is recorded among the feats of
strength which these people occasionally evince, that two of the strongest
on the island, George Young and Edward Quintal, have each carried, at
one time, without inconvenience, a kedge anchor, two sledge hammers,
and an armourer’s anvil, amounting to upwards of sixhundred weight; and
that Quintal, at another time, carried a boat twenty-eight feet in length.
Their activity on land has been already mentioned. I shall merely
give another instance rvhich has been supplied by Lieutenant Belcher,
who was admitted to be the most active among the officers on board,
and who did not consider himself behind-hand in such exploits. He
offered to accompany one of the natives down a difficult descent, in
spite of the warnings of his friend that he was unequal to the task.
They, however, commenced the perilous descent, but Mr. Belcher was
obliged to confess his inability to proceed, while his companion, perfectly
assured of his own footing, offered him his hand, and undertook
to conduct him to the bottom, if he would depend on him for safety.
In the water they are almost as much at home as on land, and can remain
nearly a whole day in the sea. They frequently swam round
their little island, the circuit of which is at the least seven miles. When
the sea beat heavily on the island they have plunged into the breakers,
and swam to sea beyond them. This they sometimes did pushing a
barrel of water before them, when it could be got off in no other way,
and in this manner we procured several tons of water without a single
cask being stove.
Their features are regular and well-looking, without being handsome.
Their eyes are bright and generally hazel, though in one or
two instances they are blue, and some have white sjieckles on the
iris; the eyebrows being thin, and rarely meeting. The nose, somewhat
flat, and ra th e r ex ten d ed a t th e nostrils, p artakes o f th e O tah eitan c m P.
. . . . , , . ^ I J . .1 rr'l-„.- IV- form, as do the lips, which are broad, and strongly sulcated. Their ,
ears are moderately large, and the lobes are invariably united to the
cheek; they are generally perforated when young, for the reception
of flowers, a very common custom among the natives of the South Sea
Islands. The hair, in the first generation, is, with one exception only,
deep black, sometimes curly, but generally straight; they allow it to
grow long, keep it very clean, and always well supplied with cocoa-nut
oil. YY’hiskers are not common, and the beards are thin. The teeth
are regular and white; but are often, in the males, disfigured by a deficiency
in enamel, and by being deeply furrowed across. They have
generally large heads, elevated in the line of the occiput. A line passed
above the eyebrows, over the ears, and round the back of the head, in a
line with the occipital spine, including the hair, measured twenty-two
inches ; another, twenty-one inches and three-quarters ; and in Polly
Young, surnamed Big-head, twenty-three inches,—the hair would make
a difference of about three-quarters of an inch. The coronal region is
full; the forehead of good height and breadth, giving an agreeable
openness to the countenance; the middle of the coronal suture is rather
raised above the surrounding parts. Their complexion, in the first
generation, is, in general, a dark gipsy hue: there are, however, exceptions
to this ; some are fairer, and others, Joseph Christian in particular,
much darker *.
The skin of these people, though in such robust health, compared
with our own, always felt cold ; and their pulses were considerably lower
than ours. Mr. Collie examined several of them : in the forenoon he
found George Young’s only sixty; three others, in the afternoon, after
dinner, were sixty-eight, seventy-two, and seventy-six; while those of
the officers who stood the heat of the climate best were above eighty.
Constant exposure to the sun, and early trahiing to labour, make these
islanders look at least eight years older than they really are.
The women are nearly as muscular as the men, and taller than the
generality of their sex. Polly Young, who is not the tallest upon the
• T h i s m a n w a s id io tic , a n d d iffe red so m a te r ia lly from th e o th e r s in c o lo u r t h a t h e is in
a ll p ro b a b ility th e o ffsp rin g o f th e m e n o f c o lo u r w lio a c c om p a n ie d th e m u tin e e r s to th e is la n d ,
a n d w h o , u n le s s h e b e o n e , h a v e le f t n o p ro g e n y .
Dec.
1825.