POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
495 
hostilities. What they were prior to the first visits of 
foreigners^ we have not the means of correctly ascertain¬ 
ing, but since that time, the only period during which 
correct dates can be affixed to events in their history, 
the short and simple annals of Tahiti are principally 
filled with notices of destructive wars ; and the effects 
of desolation still visible, prove that they have not been 
less frequent in the other islands. 
The occasions of hostility were also at times remark¬ 
ably trivial, though not so their consequences. The removal 
of a boundary mark; the pulling down of the king’s flag; 
the refusing to acknowledge the king’s son as their future 
sovereign ; speaking disrespectfully of the gods, the king, 
or the chiefs; the slightest insult to the king, chiefs, or 
any in alliance or friendship with them; with a variety 
of other more insignificant causes—were sufficient to 
justify an appeal to arms, or an invasion of the offender’s 
territory with fire and spear. Although there were no 
standing armies or regular troops in the South Sea 
Islands, nor any class of men exclusively trained and 
kept for military purposes, war was followed as a pro¬ 
fession as much as any other, and considered by many 
as one to which every other should be rendered sub¬ 
servient. 
Provision for war was attended to when every other 
consideration was disregarded. In the perpetration of the 
unnatural crime of infanticide, boys were more fre¬ 
quently spared than female children, solely with a 
view to their becoming warriors. In all our schools, 
we were surprised at the disproportion between the boys 
and the girls that attended, and at the small number 
of women in the adult population ; and on inquiring the 
cause, were invariably told that more girls than boys 
