Note 24 — Chapter III

For some evidence of the practice see John Turnbull, Voyage round the World (London, 1813), pp. 363 sq.; C. S. Stewart, Journal of a Residence in the Sandwich Islands (London, 1828), pp. 251 sqq.; P. Dillon, Voyage in the South Seas (London, 1829), ii. 134; William Ellis, Polynesian Researches, Second Edition (London, 1832-1836), i. 248 sqq.; J. Williams, Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands (London, 1838), pp. 479-486. According to Stewart, in those parts of Hawaii to which the influence of the missionaries had not penetrated, two-thirds of the infants born were murdered by their parents within the age of two years. In Tahiti three women, questioned by Mr. Williams, acknowledged that they had killed twenty-one of their children between them. Another, at the point of death, confessed to him, in an anguish of remorse, that she had destroyed sixteen of her children.