en of the twenty-five then existing were children. In
1825, Captain Beechey states the whole population at sixty-six, of whom
thirty-six were males, and thirty females. And in 1830, Captain
Waldegrave makes it amount to seventy-nine; being an increase of
thirteen in five years, or twenty per cent, which is a less rapid
increase than might be expected; but there can be little doubt it will
go on with an accelerated ratio, provided the means of subsistence
should not fail them.

Captain Waldegrave's assumption, that this island is sufficiently large
for the maintenance of one thousand souls, is grounded on incorrect
data; it does not follow, that because one-twelfth of the island will
maintain eighty persons, the whole must support nine hundred and sixty
persons. The island is not more than four square miles, or two thousand
five hundred and sixty acres; and as a ridge of rocky hills runs from
north to south, having two peaks exceeding one thousand feet in height,
it is more than probable that not one half of it is capable of
cultivation. It would seem, indeed, from several ancient morais being
discovered among these hills; some stone axes or hatchets of compact
basaltic lava, very hard and capable of a fine polish; four stone
images, about six feet high, placed on a platform, not unlike those on
Easter Island, one of which has been preserved, and is the rude
representation of the human figure to the hips, hewn out of a piece of
red lava:--these remains would seem to indicate a former population,
that had found it expedient to abandon the island from its insufficiency
to support it. Captain Beechey observes, that 'from these images and the
large piles of stones, on heights to which they must have been dragged
with great labour, it may be concluded that the island was inhabited for
a considerable time; and from bones being found, always buried under
these piles, and never upon the surface, we may presume that those who
survived, quitted the island in their canoes to seek an asylum
elsewhere.'

It appears from Beechey, that Adams had contemplated the prospect of an
increasing population with the limited means of supporting it, and
requested that he would communicate with the British Government upon the
subject, which he says he did, and that, through the interference of the
Admiralty and Colonial Office, means have been taken for removing them
to any place they may choose for themselves. It is to be hoped, however,
that n