CHAP, in.] WEST INDIES. 85 



" that they are upon the whole happier than we, we 

 " must admit, that the child is happier than the man, 

 " and that we are losers by the perfection of our na- 

 " ture, the increase of our knowledge, and the en- 

 " largement of our views."* 



In those inventions and arts which, varying the 

 enjoyments add considerably to the value of life, I 

 believe the Otaheiteans were in general somewhat 

 behind our islanders : in agriculture they were parti- 

 cularly so.f The great support of the insular territo- 

 ries of the South-sea consists of the bread-fruit, and 

 the plantain ; both which flourish there spontaneously ; 

 and although the inhabitants have likewise plantations 

 of yams and other esculent roots, yet the cultivation 

 of none of them appears to be as extensive, as was that 

 of the maize in the West Indies, or to display equal 

 skill with the preparation of the cassavi-bread from 



* Hawkesworth's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 105. 



f Dr. Robertson, in his History of America, vol. i. p. 332, observes, 

 that as the natives of the New World had no tame animals, nor the use 

 of the metals, their agriculture must necessarily have been imperfect. It 

 should however be remembered, that as every family raised corn for their 

 own support, and the islands being (to use the expression of Las Casas) 

 11 abounding with inhabitants as an ant-hill with ants," a very small 

 portion of ground allotted to the maintenance of each family, would 

 comprehend in the aggregate an immense space of cultivated country. 

 Thus we find Bartholomew Columbus observing, that the fields about 

 Zabraba, a country in the gulph of Darien, which he viewed in 1503, 

 ' were all covered with maize, like the corn fields of Europe, for above 

 " six leagues together." Unacquainted with the soil of the West Indies, 

 Dr. Robertson should have delivered his sentiments on this subject with 

 diffidence. That soil which is known in these islands by the name of 



