70 Of the Checks to Population in Bk. i. 



" spot, or carry off as many of the dead bodies as 

 " they can, and devour them at home with acts of 

 " brutality too shocking to be described.**** To 

 " give quarter, or take prisoners, makes no part 

 " of the military law, so that the vanquished can 

 " only save their lives by flight. This perpetual 

 " state of war and destructive method of conduct- 

 " ing it, operates so strongly in producing habitual 

 " circumspection, that one hardly ever finds a 

 " New Zealander off his guard, either by night or 

 " by day."* 



As these observations occur in the last Voyage, 

 in which the errors of former accounts would have 

 been corrected, and as a constant state of warfare 

 is here represented as prevailing to such a degree 

 that it may be considered as the principal check 

 to the population of New Zealand, little need be 

 added on this subject. We are not informed 

 whether any customs are practised by the women 

 unfavourable to population. If such be known, 

 they are probably never resorted to, except in 

 times of great distress ; as each tribe will natu- 

 rally wish to increase the number of its members 

 in order to give itself greater power of attack and 

 defence. But the vagabond life which the women 

 of the southern island lead, and the constant state 

 of alarm in which they live, being obliged to travel 

 and work with arms in their hands,"}" must un- 

 doubtedly be very unfavourable to gestation, and 

 tend greatly to prevent large families. 



* Cook's Third Voyage, vol. i. p. 137. 

 r III. Second Voyage, vol. i. p. 127. 



