Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/106

 CHAPTEE Y. THE PEOPLE. The population of the Fiji islands has been stated by some author- ities at 300,000 ; and by Commodore Wilkes, of the United States Exploring Expedition, at 133,500, which is nearer the truth, though somewhat too low; 150,000 1 am convinced being a truer estimate. My opinion of Wilkes's computation is based upon the following con- siderations. Several islands which he states to be uninhabited, have a small population ; and he is wrong in giving sixty-five as the number of inhabited islands, eighty being the real nimiber. Speaking of the larger islands, he correctly remarks that the climate of the mountains is unsuited to the taste and habits of the natives ; but he is not so cor- rect in confining the production of their food to the low ground. The cocoa-nut only is restricted to the coast ; yams, taro, and other escu- lents, flourish several hundred feet above sea-level, and the dwellers on the heights purchase fish of those on the coast, or supply its lack with fowls and pork. His deduction therefore does not hold good, that the interior of the large islands is thinly populated ; that there are not, for instance, more than 5,000 inhabitants in the inland districts of Great