( CG ) 



CHAP. V. 



Of the Checks to Population in the Islands of the 

 South Sea. 



The Abbe Raynal, speaking of the ancient state 

 of the British isles, and of islanders in general, 

 says of them : ■ ■ It is among these people that we 

 " trace the origin of that multitude of singular 

 " institutions which retard the progress of popu- 

 " lation. Anthropophagy, the castration of males, 

 " the infibulation of females, late marriages, 

 " the consecration of virginity, the approbation of 

 " celibacy, the punishments exercised against 

 " girls who become mothers at too early an age,"* 

 &c. These customs, caused by a superabundance 

 of population in islands, have been carried, he 

 says, to the continents, where philosophers of 

 our days are still employed to investigate the 

 reason of them. The Abbe does not seem to be 

 aware that a savage tribe in America surrounded 

 by enemies, or a civilized and populous nation 

 hemmed in by others in the same state, is, in 

 many respects, circumstanced like the islander. 

 Though the barriers to a further increase of popu- 



* Raynal, Histohe des Indes, vol. ii. liv. iii. p. 3. 10 vols. 8vo. 

 1795. 



