88 Of the Checks to Population in Bk. i. 



and wars, are the principal checks to their popu- 

 lation. 



These however are not all. On the subject of 

 the happy state of plenty, in which the natives of 

 the South-Sea Islands have been said to live, I 

 am inclined to think that our imaginations have 

 been carried beyond the truth by the exuberant 

 descriptions which have sometimes been given of 

 these delightful spots. The not unfrequent pres- 

 sure of want, even in Otaheite, mentioned in 

 Captain Cook's last voyage, has undeceived us 

 with regard to the most fertile of all these islands; 

 and from the Missionary voyage it appears, that, 

 at certain times of the year, when the bread-fruit 

 is out of season, all suffer a temporary scarcity. 

 AtOheitahoo, one of the Marquesas, it amounted to 

 hunger, and the very animals were pinched for 

 want of food. At Tongataboo, the principal of 

 the Friendly Islands, the chiefs to secure plenty 

 changed their abodes to other islands,* and, at 

 times, many of the natives suffered much from 

 want-t In the Sandwich Islands long droughts 

 sometimes occurs hogs and yams are often very 

 scarce,§ and visitors are received with an unwel- 



particular poverty from a large family, the government would be 

 in a manner compelled to take upon itself the suppression of the 

 population by law ; and, as this would be the greatest violation of 

 every natural feeling, there cannot be a more forcible argument 

 against a community of goods. 



* Missionary Voy. Appen. p. 385. 



f Id. p. 270. 



% Vancouver's Voy. vol. ii. b. iii. c. viii. p. 230. 



§ Id. c. vii. and viii. 



