Chap. II. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 13 



If there were any doubt, as to the reafon of the thing, it is proved 

 by fads inconteftable, and particularly by the example of the people 

 of the Ladrone Iflands, who were fo near the natural ftate, when 

 the Spaniards firft came among them, that they had not even the ufe 

 of fire, nor of clothes or houfes; and they fed upon the natural herbs 

 and roots, which their iflands produced, and upon what fifh they could 

 catch. Yet they were much healthier and longer-lived, and had a 

 fize and ftrength of body, fuch as are not to be found in any civilifed 

 nation. In the preceding chapter, I have given a very particular ac- 

 count of them, taken from Father Gaubien, who muft be fuppofed to 

 have known them very well*; which I think deferves to be attended to, 

 as it is the beft account we have of any nation fo near the natural fl:ate. 

 There is another nation, that are fo much in the natural flate that 

 they would not accept of clothes from the Spaniards ; and were 

 fo fond of living in the open air, that they could not be perfuaded 

 by the Jefuits, who went to their country to convert them, to fleep 

 in their huts, but chofe rather to lie all night at the doors of them, 

 though, in every other refped, they were very docile and tradable. 

 The people, I mean, are the Californians, who live upon the north 

 weft coaft of America, in a country fo cold, that fome Spaniards 

 have been there frozen to death f . How long theie Californians 

 live, we are not fufficiently acquainted with them to be able to t^ll. 

 But there is a favage people, called Caribbs^ who inhabit the An- 

 tilles Iflands in the Wefl: Indies, and who have the misfortune to 

 have difcovered an herb, of which they make a ftrong liquor, of 

 which they drink very plentifully ; yet they live very long, to the 

 age of 100 and upwards; which Father Raymond Breton, from 

 whom we have this account of them, afcribes to their bathing in the 

 rivers three times every day t: And there is another author, Mr 



Rochforti 



* Page 5. of this vol. 



f Gemelli Carren's Voyages, in Churchill's CoUeflion, vol. 4. p. 369. Sc 470. 



X Sec what I have faid of this people in vol. 3. of this work, p. 83. 



