HUMAN CROSSES 267 



crosses on a large scale are too disturbing to be recommended. 

 This country has seen a sufficiently extensive experiment of 

 that sort in its southern states, the outcome of which we 

 shall not know^ fully for several generations yet. It is desir- 

 able that each nation should have the fullest intercourse with 

 every other in commerce and in the exchange of ideas. This is 

 mutually beneficial to all, but the obliteration of all racial 

 differences within the human family is not to be expected or 

 desired. 



What has been said thus far refers only to crosses between 

 the widely separated branches of the human family and even 

 as regards such cases may be accepted with reservation, since 

 there is room for a difference of opinion concerning such 

 matters, which are not primarily biological, but sociological. 



What opinion one holds will also depend upon his point of 

 view. From the viewpoint of a superior race there is nothing 

 to be gained by crossing with an inferior race. From the 

 viewpoint of the inferior race also the cross is undesirable if 

 the two races live side by side, because each race will despise 

 individuals of mixed race and this will lead to endless friction. 

 About the only conditions under which a racial cross of this 

 sort could be fairly tested would be those under which Pit- 

 cairn Island was populated. Here more than a century ago 

 a few English sailors and a few Polynesian women founded a 

 population still in existence and flourishing. Neither pure 

 race was present to create social distinctions or racial anti- 

 pathy. The story of this hybrid human race is a romantic one. 



In the year 1788 the Englishman, John Bligh, who as 

 sailing master had been round the world with Captain Cook 

 on his second voyage, was commissioned by the British 

 Government to go to Tahiti, secure plants of the bread-fruit 

 tree and introduce them into the West Indies. To this end 

 he was given command of the ship Bounty. Bligh proved a 

 harsh and oppressive captain, and on his way from Tahiti to 

 Jamaica the crew mutinied. They put the captain with 

 eighteen of his crew into the ship's launch and themselves 

 turned back to Tahiti. The captain and his companions after 



