57 i i t E M A R K S om t u i
S E C T I O N . X .
Recapitulation. General View of -the Happineji of the IJlaniters in
the South Sea. Short comparative view of various Manners and
Cujloms ufual in the South Sea I f es, with thofe of other nations.
N ec solum in r e c t is , sed e t ia m in PARVIS ACTIRUS in s ig n is e s t HUMAN!
- GENERIS SIMILITUDO,
M . Tulltts Cicero, De leglbus, I. i. p. 305. ed. .E lzev ir*
kt
MAi tes T T A V I N G finifhedour obfervations on the inhabitants o f the
COMPARED
ifles in the South Sea, we have only to bring into one point
o f view what has been the refult o f nine long differtations, in
order the better to form a juft idea o f their real happinefs.
T h e inhabitants o f the ifles in the South Sea which we vifited,
are upon the whole very numerous. W e found that the farther
the nations live from the equinoctial line, the lefs numerous they
are, and of thofe within the tropics, they are the molt numerous
who are more civilized than the reft. Though it be highly difficult
to afcertain the population of Taheitee, it is however poflible to
form an idea, which comes very near to its real numbers. W c
took an opportunity o f making fome inferences from the number
of
H U M A N S P E C I E S . 571
o f war canoes, which we faw reviewed,, and confirmed our con- manners
• -*i , ■ COMPARED
clufions by a view o f the fize and extent o f the fertile plain
furrounding the ifle, by calculating the number o f bread-fruit
trees growing on this plain, and the quantity of breadfruit-trees
neceffary for the fupport o f one man, Ihewing that many more
men might receive fubfiftence than we had allowed. This
ftandard afforded us a rule wherewith to compare or to meafure
the population o f all other ifles j and laftly we fuppofed more
than one million o f inhabitants to live on the ifles which we had
feen and vifited. W e obferved, that the inhabitants o f the iflands
in the South Seas are remarkably different in colour, form, habit,
and natural turn o f mind ■, and that the people at Taheitee and
the Society-ifles, with thofe at the Marquefas, the Friendly-ifles,
New-Zeeland and Eafter-ifland feem to conftitute a race o f men | j
entirely different from thofe at New-Caledonia, Tanna and
Mallicollo, and all the reft living in the N ew Hebrides; We
added a fmall account o f the Pefferais, prefixing to it a diiferfation
proving the exiftence of a nation taller and more athletic than the
reft o f the American tribes j though not fo tall as the fabulous
accounts o f a gigantic race would make them. The caufes o f the
difference obferved in the races o f men are the fubjeft o f another
feftion. Some fuppofe men to be divided into fpecies materially
and effentially different from one another. Others on the contrary
are