28 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
and sedentary habits^ which so often^ in artificial or 
civilized society, destroy health, appear favourable 
to the longevity of this portion of the inhabitants, 
and present a striking contrast to the dissipated and 
licentious habits of the Areois, the dancers, and similar 
classes. 
It is impossible for any one who has visited these 
shores, or traversed any one of the districts, to entertain 
the slightest doubt that the number of inhabitants in the 
South Sea Islands was formerly much greater than 
at present. What their number, in any remote period 
of their history, may have been, it is not easy to ascer¬ 
tain : Captain Cook estimated those residing in Ta¬ 
hiti at 200,000. The grounds, however, on which he 
formed his conclusions were certainly fallacious. The 
population was at all times so fugitive and uncer¬ 
tain, as to the proportion it bore to any section of 
geographical surface, that no correct inference, as to 
the amount of the whole, could be drawn from the 
numbers seen in one part. Captain Wilson’s calcula¬ 
tion, in 1797 ^ made the population of Tahiti only about 
16,000; and, not many years afterwards, the Missionaries 
declared it as their opinion, that this island did not 
contain more than 8000 souls; and I cannot think 
that, within the last thirty years, it has ever con¬ 
tained fewer inhabitants. 
The present number of natives is about 10,000. 
That of Eimeo and Tetuaroa probably 2,000. The 
Leeward Islands perhaps contain nearly an equal num¬ 
ber. The Austral Islands have about 5,000 inhabitants; 
4,000 of whom reside in the islands of Rapa and 
Raivavai. Rarotogna, or Rarotoa, has a population 
of nearly 7^000; and the whole of the Harvey 
