102 Till!] CliUlSli OF THE ' CUUACOA: 



isles, included by the nalives iu the general name of 

 Ilaafuluhao, now amounts to 4,000, a number indicating 

 a considerable diminution within a few years. The 

 causes of this are supposed to be emigration to other 

 groups, shipwrecks, and the destructive effects of certain 

 epidemics, such as intermittent fevers, diarrhoea, Avhooping- 

 cough, which have very recently done great mischief. 

 The population has also suffered from other diseases, such 

 as dysentery, phthisis, scrofula, affections of the bladder, 

 ophthalmia, different kinds of ulcers, and a disease known 

 bv the name of tona, which very nuich resembles fram- 

 Ixpsia. Though the climate is very debilitating to the 

 Avhites, it is said not to V)e worse than that of the other 

 Friendly Islands, nevertheless the average temperature of 

 Vavau is higher, reaching to 90° in the shade through the 

 greater part of the year. 



The actual form of government may be delined a limited 

 monSrchy ; but it is right to observe that the country is 

 in a state of transition, caused liy the cflects of Christianity 

 which the Weslej^an missionaries have introduced, and 

 which has been embraced by the greater part of the in- 

 habitants, including a very small number who have become 

 Eoman Catholics. The laws have been (;ollected into a 

 printed code, and there is reason to believe that moralitv 

 is on the increase in spite of the bad examples set bv 

 the whites who occasionally visit these islands. Illicit sexual 

 intercourse, adultery, theft, backbiting (very civilized 

 features by the by) arc the most u^ual ofl'cnces. 



