432 Sir James Mackintosh's Account of [Dec. 



females of the higher castes are increased very little more than 

 those of the men j the mortality of children is still less increased ; 

 but among the inferior castes, the mortality of women is 

 increased 15 times, and that- of children nearly 12 times. 



On the native Christians the operation of the famine was only 

 to increase the burials from 184 to 201. This small increase 

 probabh affected only the poorest native Christians of Bombay; 

 for there are verv few Christians in the neighbouring provinces 

 where the famine raged, and which poured into the island that 

 crowd of fugitives which swelled the Hindu deaths to so tremen- 

 dous an amount. 



One of the most curious results which these documents afford 

 is that relating to the proportions of the two sexes, and to the 

 extent in which polygamy prevails in India. An illustrious phi- 

 losopher,* misled by travellers, too much disposed to make 

 general inferences from a few peculiar cases, and pleased to 

 discover a seeming solution of the repugnant systems of domes- 

 tic life adopted in Europe and in Asia, supposes the polygamy 

 Of Eastern nations to be the natural consequence of the super- 

 abundance of women produced in warm climates : — Mr. Bruce 

 attempts to support this theory by a statement of a most extra- 

 ordinary "natv.'.e. According to him, in Mesopotamia, Armenia, 

 and Syria) the proportion of births is two women {and a small 

 fraction) to one man ; from Latakia to Sidon it is two and three- 

 fourths to one man ; from Suez to the Straits of I'abe.'mandtl 

 the proportion is fully four to one man, which he believes holds 

 as far as the Line, and 30° beyond it.f The confidence with 

 which a private traveller makes a statement so minute respecting 

 such cviintiK-s is sufficient to deprive it of all authority. With- 

 out inv Ltional falsehood to Mr. Bruce (which seems 

 foreign" to his character), this statement maybe quoted as an 

 instance pf thai dogmatism, credulity., ostentation, and loose 

 recollection, which have thrown an unmerited suspicion over 

 the general veracity \of one. of the most enterprising of travellers, 

 as weirds writers. It is singular that reflections of 

 a very obvious §ort did not check such statements and specula- 

 tions" In a country \ here were four women to one man, 

 iris evident that nothing less than the practice of polygamy to 

 to" (he full extent of Mahomet's permission could have provided 

 for the surplus of fe males ; but it ought to have been almost 

 equallV "evident, that to support more than one wife and family 

 must be beyond the power of the laborious and indigent classes. 

 Though the necessaries of life be fewer, and attainable with less 

 labour in warm than in cold climates, the efiect&of bad govei..- 

 nient more than counterbalance the bounty of nature To 

 suppose that an Egyptian Fellah could support three or four 

 times as many women and children by his industry as a French 



* De l'Esprit des Loix, liv. svi. thap. 4. + Travels, ii. 181. 2d Edit.. 



