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 
