BOXING IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 46, 6 March 1885, Page 18

BOXING IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

Englishmen have always been accustomed to imagine that in the Art of boxing they could not be equalled by any other nationality, and numerous are the tales of how Britons have by their mighty iprowess with the fists knocked over overwhelming odds of foreigners <or savages as though they were po many ninepins. This supposed superiority has often been attributed to the hardness and strength produced in the Saxon race by the large quantity of beef they ate as ■compared with other races. The following anecdote, recorded by Mr. John Smith in his 'work, " Fruits and Farinacea," concerning the Sandwich. Islanders, vwJho subsist on vegetable food, puts matters in a different light : '" ku -officer of a frigate who Las been at the Sandwich Islands has declared that our sailors stood no chance in boxing with the natives, who fight precisely in the English manner. A quartermaster, a very stout man and a skilful boxer, indignant at peeing his companions knocked about with so little ceremony, determined to try a round or two with one of the stoutest of the natives, although strongly • dissuaded from the attempt by his officer. The blood of the native : islander being warmed by the opposition of a few minutes, he broke • through all the guards of his antagonist, seized him by the thigh : and shoulders, threw him up and held him with extended arms over j his head for a minute, in token of triumph, and then dashed him on ". the deck with great violence. The gentleman added that he never tsaw men apparently possessed of such muscular strength. Our i stoutest sailors appeared mere shrimps compared with them. Their i modes of life — constantly in vigorous action in the open air, and by the use of stimulating food or drink — may be iconsidered as a perpetual state of training."