1776. January. the itrongeft manner the indifpenfible neceflity that mankind is under of taking animal food; and in one place he breaks out in this manner, a Were man reduced to the ne- cejjity of living on bread and vegetables alone, he would fcarcely be able to fupport life in a weak and languifhing con- d i t i o n From afiertions like thefe one is almoft induced to -fufpedt, that this ample and voluminous hiftorian of the animal kingdom, has acquired but a flight and fuperficial knowledge o f the human race; and that, preferring eloquence and paradox to folid argument, he is at any time more likely to adopt falfhood and error, than to arrive at truth: for, allowing that the Bramins, who live without animal food, are rather, as M. d e B u f f o n will have it, a particular fedt than a peculiar race o f people, ftill, however, they are men, who live and propagate their fpecies, and are certainly by no means in a weakly and debilitated ftate.. I have been told, that a great part o f the poor in China fubfift, and that tolerably well, upon rice alone. The lower clafs of inhabitants in the South-Sea, (the T'ataus') and even thofe o f the higher clafles, ufed to beg meat o f us; as it was a great rarity with them; and though many of thefe could very feldom get at any fifh, and even that but in fmaH quantities, they neverthelefs throve very well on this chiefly vegetable diet, and were fo ftout and robuft as, not to mention other proofs o f their ftrength, for the fake of a glafs bead or a nail, frequently to difpute with each other which of them fhould carry fbme o f us carnivorous Europeans ©n their backs over places, which we- could not have other- wife pafled without being wet-fhod. This office they performed, fo well, as never once to ftumble in pretty rapid ftreams ftreams with rough gravelly bottoms, though at the fame- time the water reached up to their middles, and we fate a- O W ftride upon their fhoulders with our guns in our hands. The wretched ifland, called Eajier Ijland, is a very convincing proof, that human nature can accuftom itfelf to be content with very little nourifhment; for though we walked quite acrofs the ifland, and explored a eonfiderable part of it, we could fee no more than one little boat, which, by the by too, was very much patched up and cobled ;- neither could: we find timber enough to make another like i t ; fb that I do not know what could induce Capt. C o o k to affirm, that they had three or four boats. Neither did we obferve any kind of fifhing-tackle in'the.leaft, nor any figns, that the inhabitants were ufed to get their food from the fea or its fhore. They had, indeed, fome cocks and hens, but as thefe were but fmall and very tame; and at the fame time fo far from being numerous, that we fcarcely faw fifty of them in a place containing feven or eight hundred people, we may with great propriety aflert, that there were many perfons in this ifland who fublifted almoft, if not quite; without animal food of any kind whatfoever. There were fome- roots there, it is true; but as thefe were not extremely plentiful, and are held in abhorrence in the: other iflands, I do not know, whether the reafons given by Capt. C o o k are fufficient to induce one to fuppofe, that the inhabitants of this ifland ufed them as food; and in. cafe they did, they would feldom be able to make a. goad meal of them. It is true, that thefe people were almoft: all of them lank and lean; but then it muft be confidered likewife, that there, was alfa a very great fcarcity of. vegetables 3
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