FORMER LONGEVITY. 
99 
and ravine, without taking any refreshment, except 
the juice from a piece of sugar-cane, and apparently 
experience but little inconvenience from his ex¬ 
cursion. 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, how¬ 
ever, exceedingly difficult to ascertain the age of 
individuals in a community 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 con¬ 
nected 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, in¬ 
dividuals 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 
h 2 
