POPULATION. 23 
The soil is rich in those parts which have long 
been free from volcanic eruptions ; but the general 
appearance of the country is hardly so inviting as 
when first discovered ; many parts, then under cul¬ 
tivation, are now lying waste. 
The natives are in general rather above the 
middle stature, well formed, with fine muscular 
limbs, open countenances, and features frequently 
resembling those of Europeans. Their gait is 
graceful, and sometimes stately. The chiefs in 
particular are tall and stout, and their personal 
appearance is so much superior to that of the 
common people, that some have imagined them a 
distinct race. This, however, is not the fact; 
the great care taken of them in childhood, and 
their better living, have probably occasioned the 
difference. Their hair is black or brown, strong, 
and frequently curly; their complexion is neither 
yellow like the Malays, nor red like the American 
Indians, but a kind of olive, and sometimes 
reddish-brown. Their arms, and other parts of 
the body, are tataued; but, except in one of the 
islands, this is by no means so common as in many 
parts of the Southern sea. 
Compared with those of other islands, the inha¬ 
bitants may be termed numerous. They were esti¬ 
mated by their discoverers at 400,000. There is rea¬ 
son to believe this was somewliat above the actual 
population at that time, though traces of deserted 
villages and numerous enclosures, formerly culti¬ 
vated but now abandoned, are every where to be 
met with. At present it does not exceed 130,000 
or 150,000, of which 85,000 inhabit the island of 
Hawaii. The rapid depopulation which has most 
certainly taken place within the last fifty years, 
h to be attributed to the frequent and desolating 
