28 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



of anatomy from actual observa- 

 tion, and, of course, the greater 

 operations cannot be imdertaken ; 

 one man only was examined by 

 Mr. Rankin, who had lost his arm, 

 and his stump was rather a rude 

 one. Some corn was left with 

 them, which they promised to 

 cultivate ; and fortunately Cap- 

 tain Hall had some English pota- 

 toes, which were likely to be pro- 

 ductive, and the mode of planting 

 them was particularly described. 

 Their own, or sweet potatoes 

 ^convolvulus batatusj with which 

 they supplied us, contain a great 

 quantity of saccharine matter, and 

 are extremely nutritious. Their 

 fields were extremely neat, and 

 their furrows arranged with much 

 regularity by a plough of a simple 

 construction drawn by bulls, as- 

 sisted occasionally by the use of a 

 hoe ; and they piactised irrigation 

 in the culture of their rice. A 

 young bull of English breed 

 (thoiigh calved on the island) was 

 presented to the chief authorities 

 by Captain Maxwell, leaving them 

 also a cow (having two on board), 

 so that it is possible the next 

 visitors who touch at Lewchew 

 may find a larger, though they 

 cannot find a better race of cattle. 

 The mode of dancing of these 

 people may, strictly speaking, be 

 termed hopping ; for they jump 

 about upon one leg only, keeping 

 the other up, and changing occa- 

 sionally, making a number of ex- 

 travagant motions, and clapping 

 with their hands, and singing at 

 the same time their dancing song. 

 According to our notions, this was 

 their only ungraceful action. A 

 numVjer of them thus engaged, 

 more especially when joined by 

 the officers, (who must needs ac- 

 quire their style,) formed rather a 



grotesque assembly. They at- 

 tempted our mode of country- 

 dancing, and managed (consider- 

 ing it was necessary to make use 

 of both feet) tolerably well. 



The Lewchewans are a very 

 small race of people, the average 

 height of the men not exceeding 

 five feet two inches at the utmost. 

 Almost the whole animal creation 

 heie is of diminutive size, but all 

 excellent in their kind. Their 

 bullocks seldom weighed more 

 than 350lbs., but they were plump 

 and well-conditioned, and the beef 

 very fine j their goats and pigs 

 were reduced in the same propor- 

 tion, their poultry seeming to 

 form the only exception. How- 

 ever small the men might be, 

 they were sturdy, well-built, and 

 athletic. The ladies we had no 

 opportunity of measuring, but 

 they appeared to be of correspond- 

 ing stature. 



These islanders, most probably, 

 originated from Japan or Corea, 

 having a good deal of the Corean 

 lineaments, but rather milder, and 

 softened down. They are obvi- 

 ouslynot of Chinese origin, having 

 nothing whatever of that drowsy 

 and elongated eye which peculi- 

 arly distinguishes the latter j nor 

 would it seem that the few Chi- 

 nese and their descendants settled 

 on the island freely mixed with 

 the native Lewchewans, the na- 

 tional features and the natural 

 disposition of the two people being 

 perfectly distinct, and differing in 

 every respect. Neither have they 

 any mixture of Indian blood, being 

 quite as fair as the southern Eu- 

 ropeans ; even those who are most 

 exposed being scarcely so swarthy 

 as the same class of society in 

 Spain or Portugal. 



The Chinese language is learnt 



by 



