SOUTH-SEA 15JLANDERS. 315 



Circumference of the upper part of the thigh .... 35 



calf 171 



■ ankle at its smallest part ... 10 



upper part of the arm 13| 



-^ lower ditto 13^ 



hand 1 li 



neck 16 0* 



The natives of New Holland f and Van Diemen's LandJ; 

 are small in stature, with long and slender limbs : which 

 seems to be owing in part to the bad quality and deficient 

 quantity of their food (see p. 182). It is always of the least 

 nutritious kind, and scarce ; and this scarcity is often 

 aggravated to actual famine, under which the miserable 

 natives are reduced to the appearance of spectres §, and 

 probably often perish from inanition. 



With these differences in stature and proportions, we may 

 reasonably expect to find various degrees of bodily strength 

 combined. The Spaniards, in their first intercourse with the 

 New World, found the natives, in general, much feebler than 



» Voyages and Travels in various Parts of the World, p. 109. " We were 

 told," says Langsdorff, " that the chief of a neighbouring island, by name 

 U PC A, with equally exact proportions as Mufah, was a head taller, so at 

 least Roberts and Cabri both assured us : if they were correct, this man 

 must be nearly seven Paris feet high." The vigour and activity of Mufau 

 seem to have been equal to his stature: "though he had never, till now, been 

 on board an European ship, he ran up the mainmast many times together of 

 his own accord, and threw himself from it into the sea, to the great astonish- 

 ment of the spectators. He had actually gone up one day with the intention 

 of throwing himself from the topmast gallery, but Captain Krusenstern 

 called him back, and would not permit it. It was impossible to see, without 

 equal shuddering and astonishment, how he would spring from such a height, 

 and balance himself in the air for some seconds, witli his feet drawn up 

 against his body, so .is to keep his head up : from the force of the fall, and 

 the great weight of his body, he came with so violent a plunge into the 

 water, that several seconds elapsed before he again appeared on the 

 surface." p. 170. 



+ Collins, Account of the English Colony, &c. p. 553. Peron's Voy- 

 age de Decouvertes ; i. \. tab. 20. 



X Cook, Voyage to the Pacific; v. i. p. 96. 



^ Collins, lib. cit. Pero.v, v. i. p. 463, rt suiv. 



