TBE DESCENT OR ORIGIN OF MAN 



247 



when New Zealand was only thinly inhabited by Europeans. 

 When I visited the Bay of Islands in 1835, the dress and food 

 of the inhabitants had already been much modified: they 

 raised potatoes, maize, and other agricultural produce, and 

 exchanged them for English manufactured goods and tobacco. 

 It is evident, from many statements in the life of Bishop 

 Patteson," that the Melanesians of the New Hebrides and 

 neighboring archipelagoes suffered to an extraordinary de- 

 gree in health, and perished in large numbers, when they 

 were removed to New Zealand, Norfolk Island, and other 

 salubrious places, in order to be educated as missionaries. 

 '^ I'he decrease of the native population of the Sandwich 

 Islands is as notorious as that of New Zealand. It has been 

 roughly estimated, by those best capable of judging, that 

 / when Cook discovered the Islands in 1779, the population 

 / amounted to about 300,000. According to a loose census in 

 I 1823, the numbers then were 142,050. In 1832, and at sever- 

 ', al subsequent periods, an accurate census was officially taken, 

 \ but I have been able to obtain only the following returns: 



We here see that in the interval of forty years, between 

 1882 and 1872, the population has decreased no less than 



'^ "Life of J. 0. Patteson," by 0. M. Yonge, 1874; see more especially 

 vol. i. p. 530. 



