y parts of which we are but
imperfectly acquainted. There are, however, two circumstances that take
away much of this objection; the first is, that the interior parts of the
country are entirely uninhabited; so that, if the number of the inhabitants
along the coast be known, the whole will be pretty accurately determined.
The other is, that there are no towns of any considerable size; the
habitations of the natives being pretty equally dispersed in small villages
round all their coasts. It is on this ground that I shall venture at a
rough calculation of the number of persons in this group of islands.

The bay of Karakakooa, in Owhyhee, is three miles in extent, and contains
four villages of about eighty houses each, upon an average, in all three
hundred and twenty; besides a number of straggling houses, which may make
the whole amount to three hundred and fifty. From the frequent
opportunities I had of informing myself on this head, I am convinced that
six persons to a house is a very moderate allowance; so that, on this
calculation, the country about the bay contains two thousand one hundred
souls. To these may be added fifty families, or three hundred persons,
which I conceive to be nearly the number employed in the interior parts of
the country amongst their plantations, making in all two thousand four
hundred. If, therefore, this number be applied to the whole extent of the
coast round the island, deducting a quarter for the uninhabited parts, it
will be found to contain one hundred and fifty thousand. By the same mode
of calculation, the rest of the islands will be found to contain the
following numbers:--

Owhyhee 150,000
Mowee 65,400
Woahoo 60,200
Atooi 54,000
Moroloi 36,000
Oneeheow 10,000
Ranai 20,400
Preehoua 4,000

Total of inhabitants 400,000

I am pretty confident, that in this calculation I have not exceeded the
truth in the total amount. If we compare the numbers supposed to be in
Owhyhee, with the population of Otaheite, as settled by Dr. Forster, this
computation will be found very low. The proportion of coast in the latter
island is to that of Owhyhee, only as one to three; the number of
inhabitants at Otaheite he states to be one hundred and twenty-one thousand
five hundred; though, according to his own principles,