some of the vallies, are the only parts of the island that are
inhabited, and here it is populous; the houses do not form villages or
towns, but are ranged along the whole border at the distance of about
fifty yards from each other, with little plantations of plantains, the
tree which furnishes them with cloth. The whole island, according to
Tupia's account, who certainly knew, could furnish six thousand seven
hundred and eighty fighting men, from which the number of inhabitants
may easily, be computed.[1]

[Footnote 1: It is questionable if the whole existing population of the
island amount to the number now mentioned. Such has been the decrease of
its interesting but licentious inhabitants since the time of Cook, to
which, it is melancholy to be obliged to say, their intercourse with
Europeans has most rapidly contributed. The reader is referred, for some
information on this point, to the account of Turnbull's voyage,
published in 1805. A few particulars as to the appearance of Otaheite,
on the authority of subsequent accounts, may be given with satisfaction
to the reader. The island, which consists of two peninsulas connected by
a low neck or isthmus covered with trees and shrubs but quite
uninhabited, presents a mountainous aspect, rising high in the centre,
with narrow valleys of romantic but luxuriantly pleasing scenery, and
well watered, studding its verdant surface. The lofty and clustering
hills of which the greater part of the island is formed, and which,
however steep of ascent, or abrupt in termination, are clothed to the
very summit with trees of very various colours and sizes, are encircled
with a rich border of low land, the proper seat of the inhabitants, who
seem to realize, in its fertility and beauty, all that human imagination
can conceive requisite for animal enjoyment. The soil of this border,
and of the valleys, is a blackish mould; that of the hills is different,
changing as you ascend them into variously coloured earth and marl. The