mong these
islands so great a waste of the human species that numbers are born only
to die, and at the same time a large continent so near to them as New
Holland, in which there is so great a waste of land uncultivated and
almost destitute of inhabitants, it naturally occurs how greatly the two
countries might be made to benefit each other, and gives occasion to
regret that the islanders are not instructed in the means of emigrating
to New Holland, which seems as if designed by nature to serve as an
asylum for the superflux of inhabitants in the islands. Such a plan of
emigration, if rendered practicable to them, might not only be the means
of abolishing the horrid custom of destroying children as it would remove
the plea of necessity but might lead to other important purposes. A great
continent would be converted from a desert to a populous country; a
number of our fellow-creatures would be saved; the inhabitants of the
islands would become more civilised; and it is not improbable but that
our colonies in New Holland would derive so much benefit as to more than
repay any trouble of expense that might be incurred in endeavouring to
promote so humane a plan.

The latter however is a remote consideration for the intertropical parts
of New Holland are those most suited to the habits and manner of living
of the islanders; and likewise the soil and climate are the best adapted
to their modes of agriculture. Man placed by his Creator in the warm
climates perhaps would never emigrate into the colder unless under the
tyrannous influence of necessity; and ages might elapse before the new
inhabitants would spread to our settlers though they are but barely
within the limits of frost, that great cause of nine-tenths of the
necessities of Europeans. Nevertheless besides forwarding the purposes of
humanity and general convenience in bringing a people without land to a
land without people the benefit of a mutual intercourse with a
neighbouring and friendly colony would in itself be no inconsiderable
advantage.

Among people so free from ostentation as the Otaheiteans, and whose
manners are so simple and natural, the strictness with which the
punctilios of rank are observed is surprising. I know not if any action,
however meritorious, can elevate a man above the class in which he was
born unless he were to acquire sufficient power to confer dignity on
himself. If any woman of the inferior classes has a child by an Earee it
is not suf