32 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
of infanticide—^the frequency of war—the barbarous 
principles upon which it was prosecuted^ and the 
increase of human sacrifices, it does not appear pos¬ 
sible that they could have existed, as a nation, for many 
generations longer. 
An inquiry naturally presents itself in connexion with 
this subject, viz.—^To what cause is this recent change 
in the circumstances of the people to be attributed ? It 
is self-evident, that if these habits had always prevailed 
among the Tahitians, they must long since have been 
annihilated. Society must, at some time, have been more 
favourable, not only to the preservation, but to the in¬ 
crease of population, or the inhabitants could never have 
been so numerous as they undoubtedly were a century or 
a century and a half ago. There is no question but that 
depopulation had taken place to a considerable extent 
prior to their discovery by Captain Wallis, and it is not 
easy to discover the causes which first led to it. Infan¬ 
ticide and human sacrifices, together with their wars, 
appear to have occasioned the dimunition of the inhabit¬ 
ants before the period alluded to. Whether war was more 
frequent immediately preceding their discovery, than it 
had been in earlier ages, we have not the means of know¬ 
ing, nor have we been able to ascertain, with any great 
accuracy, how long the Areoi society had existed, or child- 
murder was practised. There is reason to believe that 
infanticide is not of recent origin, and the antiquity of 
the Areoi fraternity, according to tradition, is equal to 
that of the first inhabitants. 
Human sacrifices, we are informed by the natives, 
are comparatively of modern institution, and were not 
admitted until a few generations antecedent to the 
discovery of the islands. They were first offered at 
