26 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
their physical powers 5 and although remarkably strong 
men are now and then met with among them, they 
seem to be more distinguished by activity, and 
capability of endurance, than muscular strength. They 
engage in some kinds of work with great spirit for a 
time, but they soon tire. Regular, steady habits of 
labour are only acquired by long practice. When a boat 
manned with English seamen, and a canoe with natives, 
have started together from the shore—at their first 
setting out, the natives would soon leave the boat 
behind, but, as they became weary, they would relax 
their vigour; while the seamen, pulling on steadily, 
would not only overtake them, but, if the voyage 
occupied three or four hours, would invariably reach 
their destination first. 
The natives take a much larger quantity of refreshment 
than European labourers, but their food is less solid 
and nutritive. They have, however, the power of 
enduring fatigue and hunger in a greater degree than 
those by whom they are visited. A native will some¬ 
times travel, in the course of a day, thirty or forty 
miles, frequently over mountain and ravine, without 
taking any refreshment, except the juice from a piece 
of sugarcane, and apparently experience but little 
inconvenience from his excursion. The facility with 
which they perform their journeys is undoubtedly the 
result of habit, as many are accustomed to traverse the 
mountains, and climb the rocky precipices, even from 
their childhood. 
The longevity of the islanders does not appear to have 
been, in former times, inferior to that of the inhabitants 
of more temperate climates. It is, however, exceedingly 
difficult to ascertain the age of individuals in a com- 
