SECT. II.] DECEEASE OP POPULATION. 159 



Lesson 1 states that but few old people could be found in Tahiti, 

 and that the number in 1830 amounted only to 500, 2 we cannot 

 but conclude that the decrease of the population commenced 

 about the beginning of the present century, after the Europeans 

 had settled in Tahiti, when within ten years it diminished 

 from 15,000-16,000 to 8,000-9,000, after which time the num- 

 ber appears to have remained stationary. According to the 

 census of the French officials it amounted in 1848 to 8,082 ; in 

 1854, to 5,988 . 3 Different proportions prevail in other islands 

 of the archipelago. At Borabora, where one birth annually is 

 reported to thirty-two inhabitants, the proportion of births to 

 deaths is 5 : 6. 4 At Raiatea, on the contrary, the population of 

 which, consisting in 1830 of about 1,700, stand morally and 

 physically higher than that of Tahiti, the number has been 

 much increased. 5 



Very decided and well authenticated is the progressive de- 

 population of the Sandwich islands; regarding which Vancouver 6 

 stated, that in 1 792 a perceptible diminution of the population 

 commenced after Cook's arrival. Exact information dates only 

 from modern times, though all prove that the decrease still 

 progresses. 



The annual diminution is calculated to be about 8 per cent. 7 

 The census for 1832 was 130,313 ; for 1836, 108,579 ; for 1850, 

 84,165. In the year 1848 there were 7,943 deaths and 1,478 

 births ; in 1849, 4,320 deaths and 1,422 births. 8 In 1853 the 

 population amounted only to 71,019; births, 1,513; deaths, 

 8,026 : 5-6,000 of these died of the small-pox ; 9 hence it is an 

 erroneous assertion of Bennet, 10 that the Sandwich Islanders 

 are a very healthy people, and free from such fatal diseases 

 as befal the inhabitants of the Friendly Islands. It is remark- 



1 " Compl. des (Euv. de Buffon," ii, p. 281. 



2 " Journal, E. Geogr. Soc.," iii, p. 174. 



3 " E. der Novara," iii, p. 197. 



4 Steen Bille, " Bericht iiber d. E. der Galathea," ii, p. 363, 1852. 



5 " Journal E. Geo. Soc.," iii, p. 179. 



6 " E. nach der Sudsee," i, p. 139, BerL, 1799. 



7 " Morning Chronicle," May 1, 1850. 



8 " Details regarding individual islands," in Virgin., i, p. 267. 



9 " Baseler Miss. Mag.," iv, p. 98, 1854. 



10 " Narr. of a whaling voy. round the globe," i, p. 242, 1840. 



