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219 



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TION. 



there were fix or eig-ht children. Hapi^ai, the father of O-Too, popul a- 

 theprefent king of T-Obreonoo, had eight children, feven of 

 whom were ftill alive, when we came to 0-Taheitee. Many other 

 families had from three to five children. But fome will be ready 



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this great population, and to doubt, whether 



fuch numbers can find food in proportion to fupport them all : it is 

 but jufl to eftablifh the fad on a firm bafis. We have frequently 

 fpoken with warmth of the extraordinary fertility of thefe regions ; 

 v/e are likewife able to demonflrate the truth of what we have ad- 



+ 



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vanced. When we vifited the Society-Illes, the natives often told 

 us, that three lar^e bread-fruit trees were fufficient to feed a full- 





grown perion 



during the bread-fruit feafon, that is, during eight 

 months. The largeil bread-fruit trees, with their branches, occu- 

 py a fpace in diameter about forty feet ; confequently every tree oc- 

 cupies 1600 fquare feet, or if round 12561 feet. An Engliih acre 



43,560 fquare feet 



r 



follows, that above 27 large bread 



fruit trees in the firil cafe, and 35 in the fecond, would fland on an 

 acre ; and thefe will feed ten perfons for the fpace of eight months 



> 



in the firfi; cafe, and 12 perfons in "the fecond. During the remain- 

 ing four months of the year, the natives live upon the roots of yams 

 and eddoes, the banana, and the fruit of the horfe-plantanes, of which 

 they have immenfe plantations, in the valjies of the uninhabited 

 jjiountainous part of the ille. They likewife make a kind of fouiS 



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