POLYNESIAN RESEAKCHES. 
27 
munity destitute of all records; and although many 
persons are to be met with^ whose wrinkled skin^ 
decrepit form, silver hair, impaired sight, toothless 
jaws, and tremulous voice, afford every indication of 
extreme age; these alone would be fallacious data, as 
climate, food, and habits of life might have prematurely 
induced them. Our inferences are therefore drawn from 
facts connected with comparatively recent events in 
their history, the dates of which are well known. 
When the Missionaries arrived in the Duff, there were 
natives on the island who could recollect the visit of 
Captain Wallis: he was there in 1767* There are, in 
both the Sandwich and Society Islands, individuals who 
can recollect Captain Cook’s visit, which is fifty years 
ago; there are also two now in the islands, that 
were taken away in the Bounty, forty years since; and 
these individuals do not look more aged, nor even so 
far advanced in years, as others that may be seen. 
The opinion of those Missionaries who have been 
longest in the islands is, that many reach the age of 
seventy years, or upwards. There is, therefore, every 
reason to believe, that the period of human life, in the 
South Sea Islands, is not shorter than in other parts of 
the world, unless when it is rendered so by the inor¬ 
dinate use of ardent spirits, and the influence of diseases, 
prevailing among the lower classes, from which they 
were originally exempt, and the ravages of which they 
are unable to palliate or remove. 
The mode of living, especially among the farmers, 
their simple diet, and the absence of all stimu¬ 
lants, their early hours of retiring to rest, and rising 
in the morning with or before the break of day, 
their freedom from irritating or distressing cares. 
