Ch. v. the Islands of the South Sea. 75 



features are but too generally spread. Infanticide 

 is not confined to the Eareeoies. It is permitted 

 to all ; and as its prevalence among the higher 

 classes of the people has removed from it all 

 odium, or imputation of poverty, it is probably 

 often adopted rather as a fashion, than a resort of 

 necessity, and appears to be practised familiarly 

 and without reserve. 



It is a very just observation of Hume, that the 

 permission of infanticide generally contributes to 

 increase the population of a country.* By re- 

 moving the fears of too numerous a family, it en- 

 courages marriage ; and the powerful yearnings 

 of nature prevent parents from resorting to so 

 cruel an expedient, except in extreme cases. The 

 fashion of the Eareeoie societies, in Otaheite and 

 its neighbouring islands, may have made them an 

 exception to this observation ; and the custom has 

 probably here a contrary tendency. 



The debauchery and promiscuous intercourse 

 which prevail among the lower classes of people, 

 though in some instances they may have been 

 exaggerated, are established to a great extent on 

 unquestionable authority. Captain Cook, in a 

 professed endeavour to rescue the women of 

 Otaheite from a too general imputation of licenti- 

 ousness, acknowledges that there are more of this 

 character here than in any other countries ; making 

 at the same time a remark of the most decisive 

 nature, by observing that the women who thua 



■ Hume's Essays, vol. i. essay xi. p. 431. Svo. 17(>-i. 



