198 INHABITANTS. [183*.). 



(4.) Formerly, the population of the Navigator Group was 

 supposed to be one hundred thousand, but it is now estimated 

 by the missionaries at only sixty thousand. Infanticide has 

 never been practiced here, as at the Society Islands ; but se- 

 vere and bloody wars have been frequent, sometimes whole 

 districts being depopulated by them. It is not improbable, 

 therefore, though by no means certain, that the number of 

 inhabitants is not so large as at the time of the first discovery 

 of the islands. 



In complexion, the Samoan is, perhaps, a shade darker 

 than the Society Islander, but in their features there is a 

 strong resemblance. The first is taller and better formed, 

 and altogether of more commanding presence, than any of 

 the other Polynesians, except, it may be, the Tongese. Gen- 

 erally speaking, the inhabitants of the Navigators' Islands 

 have frank and open, intelligent and pleasing countenances ; 

 their eyes are black ; their teeth good and white ; and their 

 hair dark, coarse, and straight, though sometimes curled, or 

 frizzled. The men are strong and muscular, fierce and war- 

 like, active and energetic in disposition. There is a wide 

 difference, however, between the chiefs and the kanakas, or 

 common people, in regard to personal appearance. The for- 

 mer are more athletic, better made, and superior in physical 

 strength and dignity of deportment.* 



When young, the Samoan women are tolerably handsome ; 

 but as they advance in years, they become too stout and cor- 

 pulent to be called even good-looking. But this change is 

 not produced, as might be supposed, by hard labor or ill- 

 usage. On the contrary, woman is here treated with a 

 respect not usual among the savage islanders ; she enjoys 

 nearly the same privileges as the man ; the affections are 

 strongly manifested, and the ties between husband and wife, 



* This fact has been remarked almost everywhere in the Pacific, and has led 

 many travellers and scientific men to suppose, not without reason, thai 

 Polynesian chiefs belong to a distinct race who reduced the former occupants 

 of the islands to subji ction Si e Ellis' Polynesian Researches. Vol. I. p. " 

 acq. ; and Moerenhout. Vol. II. p. 247, et seq. 



