PO P U L A '
TIO-M.
collo, and i f we may form a judgment from the cultivation in
Ambrrym it mull be equally, i f not better inhabited ; the ifles. of
Aurora, o f Lepers, and Whitfuntide, feem to be lefs populous 3
Tierra del Efpiritu, Santo is large, and perhaps in proportion to its
f iz e ,. has many inhabitants. T h e ides o f Pa-oom, A-Pee, Three-
hills, Shepherd, Mountague, Hinchinbrook, and Sandwich.,
are all inhabited, and the latter feemed to be very fertile and
populous. Irromanga, and Tanna, from our own obferyations,
and the ifles; o f . Irronan, Immer, and Anattom according to the
informations we received at Tanna, are full o f people: all thefe
therefore, together may be. iuppolcd to contain at lead z o o ,000,
inhabitants.*, *
I f we fuppofe .the number o f fouls in New-Caledonia and its
adjacent ifles to be 50,000, the-allowance, i t is apprehended, cannot
be deemed very faulty; for though thefe parts be not fo highly
populous as fome others; an extent o f eighty leagues • in length,
will juftify the guefs we have made concerning its date o f
population.
T h e Southern ille o f New-Zeeland has very few inhabitants;
but the Northernmoflr, according to the accounts we had from ,Capt.
Cook, and from what we faw in fome few places, as we pafled by,
is much better peopled, nay, in fome lpots very populous y therefore
fore allowing 100,000 fouls to both ifles, we rather think onr po pu l a t
io n .
eftimate to fall ihort o f the true population.
I f we take the fum
o f thefe numbers,
we find the
whole o f the inhabitants
o f the
ifles in the
South Sea
150.000 O-Tahaitee and Imeo.
200.000 Society Ifles.
100.000 Marquefas and Low Ifles.
200.000 Friendly Ifles.
200.000 New Hebrides.
1
50,000 New Caledonia.
100.000 New Zeeland.
Amounting to 1,000,000.
T h e population in Tierra del Fuego is fo thin, and they live in
fo fmall tribes, or rather families, that I can hardly believe they
exceed in all, two thoufan d individuals, fcattered over a furface of
land, containing at lead, as much as would form the half of
Ireland.
This account o f the population o f the ifles we vifited, in the
South Seas, I will now conclude with the two following
remarks.
Firlt, I do not pretend that my eftimate of the numbers o f the
inhabitants is perfedlly accurate; at bell it is but a guefs approaching
as near to truth as the data which we had opportunities of
«Hefting would permit; and i f u p o n the whole there is any fault
„ in
G g