4 3 °
MANNE RS 17 to one in this ifle, This Arrange proportion o f men to women,
could not have taken place long before our arrival there) for in
a few years the number o f men would by death come to a par,
or nearly fo, with that o f the women. I fuppofe therefore, that
as this ifle has the HrohgeH marks o f having been once fubjedt to
a violent change from a fubterraneous -fire and earthquake, it is
highly probably that in a great revolution o f this kind, the numerous
inhabitants o f the ifle were deftroyed. Nor is this circum-
Hance very improbable, for Capt. Davis in the year 1687, felt a
violent fhock o f an earthquake in this ocean, and not very far from
this ifland. In Otaheitee earthquakes are known and are thought
to be under the regulation and condudt o f Maoowe a peculiar
divinity : but this is rendered more probable from the pradtice o f
the inhabitants of EaHer-ifland, who to this very day, frequently
form their habitations under ground, and fupport the whole fabric
by walls o f lofe Hones I - Now i f the difafler befel the nation in the
day time, it is probable that a great many men being out o f doors
upon fome bufinefs, might be preferved, whereas the women
keeping more at home, were involved in jnftantaneou.s ruin, by
the tumbling o f the wretched habitation's, and no more than a few
only that happened to be out o f doors were fpared, to become the
mothers o f a future and unhappy generation. Thefe women we
found Hill living in thefe huts, and .they were moH probably en-
1 joyed
joyed by many hulbands, nor were they afraid o f encountering the m a n n e r s
embraces o f a multitude from our fhip, being accuHomed to thefe
rites on account o f the reduced numbers o f their fex, who were
fcarcely able to fatisfy th e , defires o f fo many. I f the above
mentioned theory were admiffible, and could be confirmed by faffs
and experience, the far greater proportion of boys, fliould be born
in this ifle : but the too numerous embraces of many might perhaps
ferve to fruflratethe procreation of children, as is commonly the cafe
with thofe unhappy females, who profiitute themfelves to a.
multitude* ■
Thefe few remarks are offered in hopes o f conveying feme
ideas o f the different manners and cuHoms adopted among the
various nations o f the South Sea, in regard to their women in
general, and during marriage in particular. They lead the thinking
mind towards: the invefligation o f truth, and the wife difpenfations
o f providence relative to the generation o f man f we obferve, that
though in a higher refined, more civilized, and more moral
nation, monogamy feems to be the true and beH means for perpetuating
and encreafing mankind) yet when man is degenerated
and debafed by vicious habits, or involved in great misfortunes, we
find polygyny and polyandry likewife employed, though I humbly
prefume they may be allowed, as matters now Hand. But in cafe
wife legiflators had any authority, they .could not better employ it,
than