SEPT. 1770 BOILING SUGAR 347 



nothing ; the drawing may serve, however, to give an idea to 

 a man who has never seen a thing of the kind. 



The syrup or gula which they make in this manner is so 

 nourishing that Mr. Lange told us that it alone fed and 

 fattened their hogs, dogs, and fowls, and that men themselves 

 could and had sometimes lived upon it alone for a long time, 

 when by bad seasons, or their destructive feasts, which I 

 shall mention by and by, they have been deprived of all other 

 nourishment. We saw some of the swine, whose uncommon 

 fatness surprised us much, which very beasts we saw one 

 evening served with their suppers, consisting of nothing but 

 the outside husks of rice and this syrup dissolved in water. 

 This they told us was their constant and only food ; how far 

 it may be found consonant to truth that sugar alone should 

 have such nourishing qualities I shall leave to others to 

 determine ; I have only accounts, not experience, to favour 

 that opinion. 



The people of this island are rather under than over the 

 middling size, the women especially, most of whom are remark- 

 ably short and generally squat built. Their colour is well 

 tinged with brown, and in all ranks and conditions nearly the 

 same, in which particular they differ much from the inhabit- 

 ants of the South Sea Isles, where the better sort of people 

 are almost universally whiter than their inferiors. The men 

 are rather well made, and seem to be active and nimble ; 

 among them we observed a greater variety of features than 

 usual. The women on the other hand are far from handsome, 

 and have a kind of sameness of features among them which 

 might well account for the chastity of the men, for which 

 virtue this island is said to be remarkable. The hair of both 

 sexes is universally black and lank ; the men wear it long, 

 and fastened upon the tops of their heads with a comb ; the 

 women have theirs also long, and tied behind into a kind of 

 not very becoming club. 



Both men and women dress in a kind of blue and white 

 clouded cotton cloth, which they manufacture themselves : 

 of this two pieces, each about two yards long, serve for a 

 dress. One of these is worn round the middle ; this the 



