1 86 



The Descent of Man. 



Part I. 



removed to New Zealand, Norfolk Island, and other salubrious 

 places, in order to be educated as missionaries. 



The decrease of the native population of the Sandwich Islands 

 is as notorious as that of New Zealand. It has been roughly 

 estimated by those best capable of judging, that when Cook 

 discovered the Islands in 1779, the population amounted to 

 about 300,000. According to a loose census in 1823, the 

 numbers then were 142,050. In 1832, and at several subsequent 

 periods, an accurate census was officially taken, but I have 

 been able to obtain only the following returns : 



Year. 



1832 

 1836 

 1853 

 1860 

 1866 

 1872 



Native Population. 



(Except during 1832 

 and 1836, when the 

 few foreigners in the 

 islands were included). 



130,313. 



f 



108,579 

 71.019J 

 67,08-ti 



58, 765 ' 



51,531 



/ 



Annual rate of decrease 

 per cent., assuming it 

 to have been uniform be- 

 tween the successive cen- 

 suses ; these censuses be- 

 ing taken at irregular 

 intervals. 



4'46 

 2-47 

 0'8l 

 2-18 

 2-17 



"We here see that in the interval of forty years, between 1832 and 

 1872, the population has decreased no less than sixty-eight per 

 cent. ! This has been attributed by most writers to the profligacy 

 of the women, to former bloody wars, and to the severe labour 

 imposed on conquered tribes and to newly introduced diseases, 

 which have been on several occasions extremely destructive. No 

 doubt these and other such causes have been highly efficient, 

 and may account for the extraordinary rate of decrease between 

 the years 1832 and 1836 ; but the most potent of all the causes 

 seems to be lessened fertility. According to Dr. Euschenberger 

 of the U.S. Navy, who visited these islands between 1835 and 

 1837, in one district of Hawaii, only twenty-five men out of 1134, 

 and in another district only ten out of 637, had a family with as 

 many as three children. Of eighty married women, only thirty- 

 nine had ever borne children ; and " the official report gives an 

 * average of half a child to each married couple in the whole 



