'/76- tables; as the vegetable produce of the whole country January. . z* . . _ . - V v s j hardly confifted of twenty plants, among which the piiang, yams, fweet potatoes, and the fugar cane, were the chief articles which it appeared to me they could make ufe of. On the other hand, thefe people were agile, and as fwift as goats, and feemed to be very healthy. Their ftrength was not put to the trial; but that their vegetable food did not make them tardy in the performance of the Cyprian rites, an effect which M. d e B u f f o n , at page 3 3 , feems willing to attribute to it, the reader may be eafily convinced by perilling Dr. F o r s t e r ’s defcription of the Meffalina-like temperament o f the women. One of thefe, who had fwam to our ihip, when it was at a great diftance from the iliore, was faid, within the fpace of a few hours, to have fuffered the embraces of feventeen o f our failors and marines, before ihe fwam again to land. By way of farther refuting M . d e B u f f o n ’s affertion with refpect to the indifpenfable neceflity of an animal diet, that in the Society Iflands the inhabitants had no great fu- perfluity of meat for themfelves, much lefs had they any fifh or fleih to beftow on their dogs; fo that thefe creatures, which, according to M. d e B u f f o n , particularly came under the denomination of carnivorous animals, might very properly be faid to be fed almoft, i f not entirely, on vegetable food alone. I had no reafon, however, to look upon them as being feeble and weak; though, on the other hand, the roafted ones which now and then appeared at our table, as well as at thofe of the principal inhabitants, were convincing proofs o f their being fat and in good condition. Moreover, fince our hounds in Europe, which . certainly certainly belong more properly than man to the clafs of carnivorous animals, are often nouriihed for a long time together extremely well with nothing elfe but flour and water, why lhould not feveral forts of vegetables fuflice for mankind ? The ilaves and the Boihies-men at the Cape, who are engaged in the fervice o f fuch farmers as do nothing but graze lheep, and confequently have little or no butter-milk, and at the fame time live in parts where the game has been previoufly deftroyed, are yet kept by their matters in good condition, almoft entirely with bread and other preparations of meal and flour; for they are very careful not to laviih their iheep on their flaves, thefe fheep being very frequently the only articles by which they can get a little ready caih and pay their taxes. In T h o m a s Gage’s voyage to New Spain we find, that the poor lived, on maiz and a fort of phafeolus, or kidney-bean; though thofe which live nearer the town, now and then, at leaft on Sundays, got a little meat. In U l lo a ’s Voyage, Tom. I. p. 248, 249, we read as follows: “ The poor people here have nothing to live upon but papas -, thefe roots ftand them in the Head of all other nonriihment. The Creoles prefer them to fowls and the fineft flefh meats,” Who is there that does not know, how great a part cacao beans make of the food o f the inhabitants in the country where they grow ;. and how foon people of wafted and reduced conftitutions,, by means of them, recover their fleih and ftrength b Nay, we have an inftance of a ihip’s crew, which for two months had nothing but chocolate for their food, and were very hearty and wefl with it. Now*
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