Ch. v. the Islands of the South Sea. 89 



come austerity, very different from the profuse 

 benevolence of Otaheite. In New Caledonia the 

 inhabitants feed upon spiders,* and are sometimes 

 reduced to eat great pieces of steatite to appease 

 the cravings of their hunger, j - 



These facts strongly prove that, in whatever 

 abundance the productions of these islands may 

 be found at certain periods, orvhowever they may 

 be checked by ignorance, wars and other causes, 

 the average population, generally speaking, 

 presses hard against the limits of the average 

 food. In a state of society, where the lives of 

 the inferior orders of the people seem to be consi- 

 dered by their superiors as of little or no value, it 

 is evident that we are very liable to be deceived 

 with regard to the appearances of abundance ; and 

 we may easily conceive that hogs and vegetables 

 might be exchanged in great profusion for Euro- 

 pean commodities by the principal proprietors, 

 while their vassals and slaves were suffering se- 

 verely from want. 



I cannot conclude this general review of that 

 department of human society which has been 

 classed under the name of savage life, without 

 observing that the only advantage in it above 

 civilized life that I can discover, is the possession 

 of a greater degree of leisure by the mass of the 

 people. There is less work to be done, and con- 



* Voyage in Search of Perouse, cb. xiii. p. 420. Eng. transl. 

 4 to. 



t Id. ch, xiii. p. 400. 



