Igg THE DESCENT OP MAN. 



tions. Thus the crossed offspring from the Tahitians and Eng- 

 lish, when settled in Pitcairn Island, increased so rapidly that 

 the island was soon overstocked; and in June 1856 they were re- 

 moved to Norfolk Island. They then consisted of 60 married 

 persons and 134 children, making a total of 194. Here they like- 

 wise increased so rapidly, that although sixteen of them returned 

 to Pitcairn Island in 1859, they numbered in January 1868, 300 

 souls, the males and females being in exactly equal numbers. 

 What a contrast does this case present with that of the Tas- 

 manians; the Norfolk Islanders increased in only twelve and a 

 half years from 194 to 300; whereas the Tasmanians decreased 

 during fifteen years from 120 to 46, of which latter number only 

 ten were children.'" 



So again in the interval between the census of 1866 and 1872 

 the natives of full blood in the Sandwich Islands decreased by 

 8081, whilst the half-castes, who are believed to be healthier, in- 

 creased by 847; but I do not know whether the latter number 

 includes the offspring from the half-castes, or only the half- 

 castes of the first generation. 



The cases which I have here given all relate to aborigines, 

 who have been subjected to new conditions as the result of 

 the immigration of civilized men. But sterility and ill-health 

 would probably follow, if savages were compelled by any cause, 

 such as the inroad of a conquering tribe, to desert their homes 

 and to change their habits. It is an interesting circumstance 

 that the chief check to wild animals becoming domesticated, 

 which implies the power of their breeding freely when first cap- 

 tured, and one chief check to wild men, when brought into con- 

 tact with civilization, surviving to form a civilized race, is the 

 same, namely, sterility from changed conditions of life. 



Finally, although the gradual decrease and ultimate extinc- 

 tion of the races of man is a highly complex problem, depending 

 on many causes which differ in different places and at different 

 times; it is the same problem as that presented by the extinc- 

 tion of one of the higher animals — of the fossil horse, for in- 

 stance, which disappeared from South America, soon afterwards 

 to be replaced, within the same districts, by countless troops 

 of the Spanish horse. The New Zealander seems conscious of 

 this parallelism, for he compares his future fate with that of 

 the native rat now almost exterminated by the European rat. 

 Though the difficulty is great to our imagination, and really 

 great, if we wish to ascertain the precise causes and their man- 



'^ These details Are taken from 'The Mutineers of the ""Bounty," ' 

 by Lady Belcher, 1870; and from 'Pitcairn Island,' ordered to be 

 printed by the House of Commons, May 29th, 1863. The following- 

 statements about the Sandwich Islanders are from the 'Honolulu Ga- 

 zette,' and from Mr. Coan. 



