Nothing could make a stronger impression at first sight on our arrival here, than the remarkable contrast between the robust make and dark colour of the people of Tongataboo, and a sort of delicacy and whiteness which distinguish the inhabitants of Otaheite. It was even some time before that difference could preponderate in favour of the Otaheitans; and then only, perhaps, because we became accustomed to them, the marks which had recommended the others began to be forgotten. Their women, however, struck us as superior in every respect; and as possessing all those delicate characteristics which distinguish them from the other sex in many countries. The beard, which the men here wear long, and the hair, which is not cut so short as in the fashion at Tongataboo, made also a great difference; and we could not help thinking, that, on every occasion, they shewed a greater degree of timidity and fickleness. The muscular appearance, so common amongst the Friendly Islanders, and which seems a consequence of their being accustomed to much action, is lost here, where the superior fertility of their country enables the inhabitants to lead a more indolent life; and its place is supplied by a plumpness and smoothness of the skin; which, though perhaps more consonant with our ideas of beauty, is no real advantage; as it seems attended with a kind of languor in all their motions, not observable in the others. This observation is fully verified in their boxing and wrestling, which may be called little better than the feeble efforts of children, if compared to the vigour with which these exercises are performed at the Friendly Islands. Personal endowments being in great esteem amongst them, they have recourse to several methods of improving them, according to their notions of beauty. In particular, it is a practice, especially amongst the _Erreoes_, or unmarried men of some consequence, to undergo a kind of physical operation to render them fair. This is done by remaining a month or two in the house; during which time they wear a great quantity of clothes, eat nothing but bread-fruit, to which they ascribe a remarkable property in whitening them. They also speak as if their corpulence and colour, at other times, depended upon their food; as they are obliged, from the change of seasons, to use different sorts at different times. Their common diet is made up of at least nine-tenths of vegetable food; and, I believe, more particularly, the _mahee_, or fermented bread-fruit, which enters almost every meal, has a remarkable effect upon them, preventing a costive habit, and producing a very sensible coolness about them, which could not be perceived in us who fed on animal food. And it is, perhaps, owing to this temperate course of life that they have so few diseases among them.