So simple a diet accompanied with moderation must be productive of sound health, which indeed these people are blessd with in a very high degree. Tho we were in several of their towns where Young and old crowded to see us, actuated by the same curiosity as made us desirous of seing them, I do not remember a single instance of a person distemperd in any degree that came under my inspection, and among the numbers of them that I have seen naked I have never seen an eruption on the skin or any signs of one by scars or otherwise. Their skins indeed when they came off to us in their canoes were often markd in patches with a white flowery appearance which at first deceivd us, but we afterwards found that that was owing to their having been in their Passage wetted with the spray of the sea, which when it was dry left the salt behind it in a fine white powder.

Such health drawn from so sound principles must make physicians almost useless: indeed I

Voyaging Accounts