66 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES, [CHAP. 



friendly relations with a powerful tribe, whose customs he 

 has learnt. Suppose him to possess the physical strength, 

 energy, and ability of a dominant white race, and let the 

 food and climate of the island suit his constitution ; grant 

 him every advantage which we can conceive a white to 

 possess over the native ; concede that in the struggle for 

 existence his chance of a long life will be much superior 

 to that of the native chiefs ; yet from all these admissions, 

 there does not follow the conclusion that, after a limited 

 or unlimited number of generations, the inhabitants of the 

 island will be white. Our shipwrecked hero would pro- 

 bably become king ; he would kill a great many blacks in 

 the struggle for existence; he would have a great many 

 wives and children." . ..." In the first generation there 

 will be some dozens of intelligent young mulattoes, much 

 superior in average intelligence to the negroes. We might 

 expect the throne for some generations to be occupied by 

 a more or less yellow king ; but can any one believe that 

 the whole island will gradually acquire a white, or even 

 a yellow, population ?"..." Darwin says that in the 

 struggle for life a grain may turn the balance in favour of 

 a given structure, which will then be preserved. But one 

 of the weights in the scale of nature is due to the number 

 of a given tribe. Let there be 7000 A's and 7000 B's, 

 representing two varieties of a given animal, and let all 

 the B's, in virtue of a slight difference of structure, have 

 the better chance of life by nko part. We must allow 

 that there is a slight probability that the descendants of 

 B will supplant the descendants of A ; but let there be 

 only 7001 A's against 7000 B's at first, and the chances 

 are once more equal, while if there be 7002 As to start, 

 the odds would be laid on the A's. True they stand a 



