Note. 175 



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 

 probably become king ; he would kill a great many blacks 

 in the struggle for existence ; he would have a great 

 many wives and children, while many of his subjects would 

 live and die as bachelors ; an insurance company would 

 accept his life at perhaps one-tenth of the premium 

 which they would accept from the most favoured of the 

 negroes. Our white's qualities would certainly tend very 

 much to preserve him to a good old age ; and yet he 

 would not suffice in any number of generations to turn his 

 subjects' descendants white. It may be said that the 

 white colour is not the cause of the superiority. True ; 

 but it may be used simply to bring before the senses 

 the way in which qualities belonging to one individual in 

 a large number must be gradually obliterated. In the first 

 generation there will be some dozens of intelligent young 

 mulattoes, much superior in average intelligence to the 

 negroes. We might suppose the throne for some genera- 

 tions 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, or that the 

 islanders would acquire the energy, courage, ingenuity, 

 patience, self-control, endurance, in virtue of which 

 qualities our hero killed so many of their ancestors, and 

 begot so many children those qualities, in fact, which 



