Ch. v. the Islands of the South Sea. 77 



The wars between the inhabitants of the different 

 islands, and their civil contentions among them- 

 selves, are frequent, and sometimes carried on in 

 a very destructive manner.* Besides the waste 

 of human life in the field of battle, the conquerors 

 generally ravage the enemy's territory, kill or 

 carry off the hogs and poultry, and reduce as 

 much as possible the means of future subsistence. 

 The island of Otaheite, which, in the years 1767 

 and 1768, swarmed with hogs and fowls, was, in 

 1773, so ill supplied with these animals, that 

 hardly any thing could induce the owners to part 

 with them. This was attributed by Captain Cook 

 principally to the wars which had taken place 

 during that interval-! On Captain Vancouver's 

 visit to Otaheite in 1791, he found that most of 

 his friends, whom he had left in 1777, were dead ; 

 that there had been many wars since that time, in 

 some of which the chiefs of the western districts 

 of Otaheite had joined the enemy ; and that the 

 king had been for a considerable time completely 

 worsted, and his own districts entirely laid waste. 

 Most of the animals, plants and herbs, which Cap- 

 tain Cook had left, had been destroyed by the 

 ravages of war.J 



The human sacrifices which are frequent in 

 Otaheite, though alone sufficiently strong to fix 

 the stain of barbarism on the character of the 



* Bougainville, Voy. autour du Monde, ch. iii. p. 217. Cook's 

 First Voyage, vol. ii. p. 244. Missionary A'oyage, p. 224. 

 f Cook's Second Voyage, vol. i. p. 182, 183. 

 1 Vancouver's Voy. vol. i. b. i. c. G. p. 98. 4to. 



