C ap. XXIV. TfeCaribby-Iflandsr ^ 



and fometimes longer : For though they cannot number their 

 yearsj yet is the number thereof deduced from the account 

 they give of certain accidents : And among others, there were 

 not long fince living among them fome perfons who remembred 

 the firft arrival of the Spaniards in America : Whence it is to 

 be concluded, that they rauft be a hundred and fixry years of 

 age at the leaft : And indeed thefe are fuch a people as may 

 pafs for the (hadow of a body, and have nothing but the heart 

 living, being continually bed-rid, immoveable, and reduced to 

 pure skeletons } yet are they ftill obferved to be in health .• 

 And it is fufficiently apparent, that their tongues are living as 

 well as their hearts, and that their Reafon is not expir'd, for 

 they do not only fpeak with much eafe, but alfo their memory 

 and judgment are not chargeable with any defeft. 



Nor is it much to be admired that the Caribbians (hould live 

 fo long, fince both ancient and modern Hiftories furnifli us with Dutch Ke/*r 

 examples enough to confirm this truth 5 and among others the turns. p. 1. 

 Dutch who have traded to the Moluccoes, affirm, that in thatc 24. 

 Country the Inhabitants live ordinarily a hundred and thirty Lefcarbot. 

 years : Vincent le Blanc affirms, that in Sumatra Java, and the <p a 1 1 

 neighbouring Iflands, they live to a hundred and forty, as they t'c'26' 

 do alfo among the Canadians $ and that in the Kingdom of ' C * 

 Cafitby they hold out to a hundred and fifty : Pirard and fome Bergeron, 

 others aflure us, that the Brafilians live no lefs, nay that fome- ^efcarbot, 

 times they exceed a hundred and fixty ; And in Florida, and ^ e ^ aet * 

 J«catan,{otne have gone beyond that age : Nay it is reported 

 that the French, at the time of Laudoniere's voyage into Flo- 

 rida, in the year M DLXIV* faw there an old man, who faid 

 he was three hundred years of age, and Father of five Gene- 

 rations : And if we may credit Maffaus, an Inhabitant of Ben- 

 gala 3 in the year 1557. made it his boaft, that he was three hun- 

 dred thirty five years of age. So that all this confider'd, it is no 

 incredible thing that our Caribbians fhould live fo long. 



AJekpiades,as Plutarch relates, was of opinion, that general- pj ac p^j 

 ly rhe Inhabitants of cold Countries liv'd longer than thofe/^ ' c<50 ' 

 of hot, giving this reafon, that the cold keeps in the na- 

 tural heat, and clofes the pores to that end, whereas that 

 heat is eafily difperfed in thofe Climates where the pores are 

 kept open by the heat of the Sun : But experience, intheC*- 

 ribbians and fo many other Nations of the Torrid Zone who 

 ordinarily live fo long, while our Europeans commonly dye 

 young, deftroies that argument. 



When it happens that our Caribbians, as fometimes it muff, 

 are troubled with any indifpolition, they have the knowledge 

 of abundance of Herbs, Fruits, Roots, Oils, and Gums, by the 

 affiftance whereof they recover their health in a fhort time,, 

 if the dileafe be not incurable : They have alfo an infallible 

 fecfet to cure the flinging of Snakes, provided they have nc$ 



touch'd 



