Joseph Banks's Descriptions of Places, South Sea Islands, page 89

Page 89

Joseph Banks's Descriptions of Places

South Sea Islands

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South Sea Islands (continued)

to what live upon the flats. They are of the larger size of Europaeans, all excellently made, and some handsome both men and women, the only bad feature they have is their noses which are in general flat, but to balance this their teeth are almost without exception even and white to perfection, and the eyes of the women especialy are full of expression and fire. In Colour they differ very much: those of inferior rank who are obligd in the excersise of their professions, fishing especialy, to be much exposd to the sun and air are of a dark brown; the superiors again who spend most of their time in their houses under shelter are seldom browner (the women especialy) than that kind of Brunette which many in Europe preferr to the finest red and white. Complexion indeed they seldom have tho some I have seen shew a Blush very manifestly; this is perhaps owing to the thickness of their skins, but that fault is in my opinion well compensated by their infinite smoothness much superior to any thing I have met with in Europe.

The men as I have before said are rather large, I have measurd one 6 feet 3½ the superior women are also as large as Europaeans but the inferior sort generaly small, some very small owing possibly to their early amours which they are much

Voyaging Accounts

© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol.1) 334, February 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
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