The varieties of man
seem to act on each other in the same way as different species of
animals--the stronger always extirpating the weaker. It was
melancholy at New Zealand to hear the fine energetic natives saying
that they knew the land was doomed to pass from their children.
Every one has heard of the inexplicable reduction of the population
in the beautiful and healthy island of Tahiti since the date of
Captain Cook's voyages: although in that case we might have
expected that it would have been increased; for infanticide, which
formerly prevailed to so extraordinary a degree, has ceased,
profligacy has greatly diminished, and the murderous wars become
less frequent.
The Reverend J. Williams, in his interesting work, says that the
first intercourse between natives and Europeans "is invariably
attended with the introduction of fever, dysentery, or some other
disease which carries off numbers of the people." (19/2. "Narrative
of Missionary Enterprise" page 282.) Again he affirms "It is
certainly a fact, which cannot be controverted, that most of the
diseases which have raged in the islands during my residence there
have been introduced by ships; and what renders this fact
remarkable is that there might be no appearance of disease among
the crew of the ship which conveyed this destructive importation.
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