84 Of the Checks to Population in Bk. i. 



their considering the lives of these poor people as 

 of little or no value. 



Captain Cook, in his first visit to the Sandwich 

 Islands, had reason to think that external wars 

 and internal commotions were extremely frequent 

 among the natives.* And Captain Vancouver, in 

 his later account, strongly notices the dreadful 

 devastations in many of the islands from these 

 causes. Incessant contentions had occasioned 

 alterations in the different governments since 

 Captain Cook's visit. Only one chief of all that 

 were known at that time was living ; and, on in- 

 quiry, it appeared that few had died a natural 

 death, most of them having been killed in these 

 unhappy contests.-}" The power of the chiefs over 

 the inferior classes of the people in the Sandwich 

 Islands appears to be absolute. The people, on 

 the other hand, pay them the most implicit obe- 

 dience ; and this state of servility has manifestly 

 a great effect in debasing both their minds and 

 bodies.:}: The gradations of rank seem to be even 

 more strongly marked here than in the other 

 islands, as the chiefs of higher rank behave to 

 those who are lower in this scale in the most 

 haughty and oppressive manner.^ 



It is not known that either in the Friendly or 

 Sandwich Islands infanticide is practised, or that 

 institutions are established similar to the Eareeoie 



* Cook's Third Voy. vol. ii. p. 247. 



f Vancouver, vol. i. b. ii. c. ii. p. 187, 188. 



X Cook's Third Voy. vol. iii. p. 157. 



§ Id. 



