fons, including warriors, paddlers, and fteerers ■ and in the fmaller
about 30. (We found, indeed, forne war-canoes, that required 14-4
paddlers, eight men to fleer, one ,to command the paddlers, and
about .30 .warriors for the ftage; but, as there are p.nly. one or two
veflels of that lize in each ifland, we can make', no inference from
thence.) T o be very moderate in our computations, wejwill fup-
pofe no more than 20 men in.each o f thefe war-canoes"; and, according
to this laft fuppofition, the men required to defend and
navigate 1200 veflels, will amount to 24,000. , Each o f the fmall
attending boats contained at a medium five men ; confequently the
crews o f all the fmall canoes o f the 24 diftridts, at the rate o f ' 25
veflels from each diftridt,' form a number o f 300.0, which, added to
the complement o f the war-canoes, are 27,000 men. . Let us further;
fuppofe each of thefe men to .be married to a woman,; and. to
have one child; and in this cafe, we (hall have the number o f
81,000 perfons. Every one will allow, that this is the very loweft
computation that can be made, and that the number o f living inhabitants
o f T -Obreonoo mull be at leaft double the above number.
For all the inhabitants are not warriors ; nor are all employed in
navigating the veflels; there remain befides, many., old men at
home; and it is certainly infufficient to allow- a Angle child for
every married couple; for marriage here is, commonly.bleffed with
a numerous offspring. I have feen more than one family, wherein
i . there
there were fix or eight children. H a p p a i ,- the father of O -T o o , p o p u
• T IO
the prefent king of T-Obreonoo, had eight children, feven of
whom were ftill alive, when we came to O-Taheitee. Many other
families had from three to five children. But fome will be ready
enough to queftion this great population, and to doubt, whether
fiich numbers, can find food in proportion to fupport them all : it is
but juft to eftablifh the fadt on a firm bafis. W e have frequently
fpoken with warmth o f the extraordinary fertility o f thefe regions ;,
we are likewilè, able to demonftrate the truth o f what we have advanced.
When we vifited the Society-Ifles, the natives often told
us, that three large bread-fruit trees were fufficient to feed a full-
grown perfon during the bread-fruit feafon, that is, during eight
months. T h e largeft bread-fruit trees, with their branches,. occupy
a fpace in diameter about forty feet ; confequently every tree occupies
1600 fquare feet, or i f round 12 5 6 4 feet. • An Englifh acre
.contains 43,560 fquare feet; it follows, that above 27 large breadfruit
trees in the firft cafe, and 35 in the fécond, would Hand on an
acre.; and thefe will feed ten perfons for the fpace o f eight months
in the firft cafe, and 12 perfons in the fécond. During the remaining
four months of the year, the natives live upon the roots o f yams
and eddoes, the banana, and the fruit of the horfe-plantaneé, o f which
they have immenfe plantations, in the vallies .of the uninhabited .
mountainous part o f the ifle. They likewife make a kind o f four-
F f 2 , '' pafte