9'2 
VOYAGE TO THE 
^ height is five feet ten inches; the tallest person is six feet and one quar- 
ter of an inch ; and the shortest of the adults is five feet nine inches 
1821 one-eighth. Their limbs are well-proportioned, round, and straight ; 
their feet turning a little inwards. The boys promise to be equally as 
tall as their fathers ; one of them whom we measured was, at eight years of 
age, four feet one inch; and another, at nine years, four feet three inches. 
Their simple food and early habits of exercise give them a muscular 
power and activity not often surpassed. It is recorded among the feats of 
strength which these people occasionally evince, that two of the strongest 
on the island, George Young and Edward Quintal, have each carried, at 
one time, without inconvenience, a kedge anchor, two sledge hammers, 
and an armourer’s anvil, amounting to upwards of sixhundred weight; and 
that Quintal, at another time, carried a boat twenty-eight feet in length. 
Their activity on land has been already mentioned. I shall merely 
give another instance which has been supplied by Lieutenant Belcher, 
who M'as admitted to be the most active among the officei’s on board, 
and who did not consider himself behind-hand in such exploits. He 
offered to accompany one of the natives down a difficult descent, in 
spite of the warnings of his friend that he was unequal to the task. 
They, however, commenced the perilous descent, but Mr. Belcher was 
obliged to confess his inability to proceed, while his companion, per- 
fectly assured of his own footing, offered him his hand, and undertook 
to conduct him to the bottom, if he would depend on him for safety. 
In the water they are almost as much at home as on land, and can re- 
main nearly a whole day in the sea. They frequently swam round 
their little island, the circuit of which is at the least seven miles. When 
the sea beat heavily on the island they have plunged into the breakers, 
and swam to sea beyond them. This they sometimes did pushing a 
barrel of water before them, when it could be got off in no other way, 
and in this manner we procured several tons of water without a single 
cask being stove. 
Their features are regular and well-looking, without being hand- 
some. Their eyes are bright and generally hazel, though in one or 
two instances they are blue, and some have white speckles on the 
iris ; the eyebrows being thin, and rarely meeting. The nose, some- 
