CHAP. II.] THE NATIVES. 17 



population; all these causes are sufficient to ac- 

 count for the natives not having spread in greater 

 numbers over a country which, with the imple- 

 ments and resources they possessed for agriculture, 

 would have supported a much larger number of 

 inhabitants. But neither all these causes, nor 

 the wars which for the last twenty-five years have 

 agitated the whole island, and driven many tribes 

 from their districts, who lived in continual fear of 

 their neighbours, and dared not cultivate the land, 

 nor the unequal introduction of fire-arms, which 

 gave to one tribe too great an advantage over the 

 others, will explain why so many diseases are 

 now prevalent amongst them, nor why their num- 

 bers continue to decrease after most of these causes 

 have ceased. At present, wars, if not uncommon, 

 are at least much less frequent and less extensive ; 

 a feeling of security begins to exercise its due influ- 

 ence ; murders arising from witchcraft and other 

 superstitions are of less frequent occurrence, and 

 are perpetrated only in the interior, where Euro- 

 pean intelligence and customs have not yet pene- 

 trated. My opinion on the subject is this : in 

 former times the food of the natives consisted of 

 sweet potatoes, taro (Caladium esculentum), fern- 

 root (Pteris esculenta), the aromatic berries of the 

 kahikatea (Dacrydium excelsum), the pulp of a fern- 

 tree (Cyathea medullaris) called korau or mamako, 

 the sweet root of the Dracaena indivisa, the heart of 

 a palm-tree (Areca sapida), a bitter though excel- 



VOL. II. C 



