STRENGTH AND ACTIVITY. 149 
at Valparaiso, in a letter to the author, from 
that place, dated October 1849, stated that 
an English man-of-war, the Pandora, had 
lately arrived direct from Pitcairn's, and 
that the commander, Lieut. Wood, and the 
officers, had given the most pleasing ac- 
count of the happy state in which their 
little community were living. They were 
described as a remarkably strong and healthy 
people. For instance, a young woman, 
eighteen years of age, had been accus- 
tomed to carry on her shoulders a hundred 
pounds weight of yams over hills and pre- 
cipitous places, and for a considerable dis- 
tance, where one unaccustomed to such 
exercise would scarcely be able to scramble. 
A man, sixty years old, with ease carried 
the surgeon of the Pandora up a steep ascent 
from the landing-place, which he had him- 
self in vain attempted to mount, the ground 
being very slippery from recent rains; and 
the officer being a large man, six feet high, 
rendered it the more surprising. Indeed, 
Lieut. Wood said he was himself borne aloft 
in the arms of a damsel, and carried up the 
hill with the utmost facility. 
