Of the checks to population, &c. purchase European spirits directed the industry of the greatest part of them, almost exclusively, to the procuring of peltry for the purpose of this exchange,' which would prevent their attention to the more fruitful sources of subsistence, and at the same time tend rapidly to destroy the produce of the chace. The number of wild animals in all the known parts of America, is probably even more diminished than the number of people.* The attention to agriculture has every where slackened rather than increased, as might at first have been expected, from European connexion. In no part of America, either North or South, do we hear of any of the Indian nations living in great plenty, in consequence of their diminished numbers. It may not therefore be very far from the truth, to say, that even now, in spite of all the powerful causes of destruction that have been mentioned, the average population of the American nations is, with few exceptions, on a level with the average quantity of food, which in the present state of their industry they can obtain. Charlevoix, N. Fr. tom. iii. p. 260. The general introduction of fire arms among the Indians has probably greatly contributed to the diminution of the wild animals. CHAPTER V. Of the Checks to Population in the Islands of the THE Abbé Raynal speaking of the ancient state of the British isles, and of islanders in general, says of them: "It is among these people that "we trace the origin of that multitude of singular "institutions that retard the progress of popula"tion. Anthropophagi, the castration of males, "the infibulation of females, late marriages, the "consecration of virginity, the approbation of celi"bacy, the punishments exercised against girls "who become mothers at too early an age," &c. These customs caused by a superabundance of population in islands have been carried, he says, to the continents, where philosophers of our days are still employed to investigate the reason of them. The Abbé does not seem to be aware, that a savage tribe in America surrounded by enemies, or a civilized and populous nation hemmed in by others in the same state, is in many respects 1 Raynal, Hist. des Indes, vol. ii. lib. iii. p. 3, 10 vols. 8vo. 1795. 79 Of the checks to population in circumstanced like the islander. Though the barriers to a further increase of population be not Both are peopled And the whole earth But as the bounds so well defined, and so open to common observation, on continents as on islands, yet they still present obstacles that are nearly as insurmountable; and the emigrant, impatient of the distresses which he felt in his own country, is by no means secure of finding relief in another. There is probably no island yet known, the produce of which could not be further increased. This is all that can be said of the whole earth. up to their actual produce. is in this respect like an island. to the number of people on islands, particularly when they are of small extent, are so narrow, and so distinctly marked, that every person must see and acknowledge them, an inquiry into the checks to population on those of which we have the most authentic accounts may perhaps tend considerably to illustrate the present subject. The question that is asked in captain Cook's First Voyage, with respect to the thinly scattered savages of New Holland, "By what means the inhabitants of "this country are reduced to such a number as it can subsist?" May be asked with equal pro 1 Cook's First Voyage, vol. iii. p. 240. 4to. the Islands of the South Sea. priety respecting the most populous islands in the South Sea, or the best peopled countries in Europe and Asia. The question, applied generally, appears to me to be highly curious, and to lead to the elucidation of some of the most obscure, yet important points, in the history of human society. I cannot so clearly and concisely describe the precise aim of the first part of the present work, as by saying, that it is an endeavor to answer this question so applied. Of the large islands of New Guinea, New Britain, New Caledonia, and the New Hebrides, little is known with certainty. The state of society in them is probably very similar to that which prevails among many of the savage nations of America. They appear to be inhabited by a number of different tribes who are engaged in frequent hostilites with each other. The chiefs have little authority; and private property being in conse quence insecure, provisions have been rarely found on them in abundance." With the large island of New Zealand we are better acquainted; but 1 See the different accounts of New Guinea and New Britain, in the Histoire des Navigations aux terres Australes; and of New Caledonia and the New Hebrides in Cook's Second Voyage, vol. ii. b. iii. Of the checks to population in not in a manner to give us a favorable impression of the state of society among its inhabitants. The picture of it drawn by captain Cook in his three different voyages contains some of the darkest shades, that are any where to be met with in the history of human nature. The state of perpetual hostility in which the different tribes of these people live with each other, seems to be even more striking than among the savages of any part of America; and their custom of eating human flesh, and even their relish for that kind of food, are established beyond a possibility of doubt.2 Captain Cook, who is by no means inclined to exaggerate the vices of savage life, says of the natives in the neighborhood of Queen Charlotte's Sound, "If I "had followed the advice of all our pretended "friends, I might have extirpated the whole race; "for the people of each hamlet or village, by "turns, applied to me to destroy the other. One "would have thought it almost impossible that so "striking a proof of the divided state in which "these miserable people live, could have been assigned." And in the same chapter further on, 1 Cook's First Voyage, vol. ii. p. 345. Second Voyvol. i. p. 101. Third Voyage, vol. i. p. 161, &c. age, 2 Second Voyage, vol. i. p. 246. 3 Third Voyage, vol. i. p. 142. |