In Martinique, where from eight to nine thousand whites live on the proceeds of the toil of 125,000 of the colored race, the population is diminishing instead of increasing.  The French creoles seem to have lost the power of maintaining themselves, in proportion to the existing means of subsistence, and of multiplying.  Families which do not from time to time fortify themselves with a strain of fresh European blood, die out in from three to four generations.  The same thing happens in the English, but not in the Spanish Antilles, although the climate and the natural surroundings are the same.  According to Ramon de la Sagra, the death-rate is smaller among the creoles, and greater among the natives, than it is in Spain; the mortality among the garrison, however, is considerable.  The same writer states that the real acclimatization of the Spanish race takes place by selection; the unfit die, and the others thrive.

[53] An unnecessary line is here omitted.—­C.

[54] Depons, speaking of the means employed in America to obtain the same end, says, “I am convinced that it is impossible to engraft the Christian religion on the Indian mind without mixing up their own inclinations and customs with those of Christianity; this has been even carried so far, that at one time theologians raised the question, whether it was lawful to eat human flesh?  But the most singular part of the proceeding is, that the question was decided in favor of the anthropophagi.”

[55] As a matter of fact, productive land is always appropriated, and in many parts of the Islands is difficult and expensive to purchase.  Near Manila, and in Bulacan, land has for many years past cost over $225 (silver) an acre.

[56] Ind.  Arch.  IV; 307.

[57] In Buitenzorger’s garden, Java, the author observed, however, some specimens growing in fresh water.

[58] Boyle, in his Adventures among the Dyaks, mentions that he actually found pneumatic tinder-boxes, made of bamboo, in use among the Dyaks; Bastian met with them in Burmah.  Boyle saw a Dyak place some tinder on a broken piece of earthenware, holding it steady with his thumb while he struck it a sharp blow with a piece of bamboo.  The tinder took fire.  Wallace observed the same method of striking a light in Ternate.

[59] Centigrade is changed to Fahrenheit by multiplying by nine-fifths and adding thirty-two.—­C.

[60] Tylor (Anahuac 227) says that this word is derived from the Mexican petlatl, a mat.  The inhabitants of the Philippines call this petate, and from the Mexican petla-calli, a mat “house,” derive petaca, a cigar case.

[61] Four lines, re an omitted sketch, left out.—­C.

[62] Voyage en Chine, vol.  II., page 33.

[63] According to the report of an engineer, the sand banks are caused by the river San Mateo, which runs into the Pasig at right angles shortly after the latter leaves the Lagoon; in the rainy season it brings down a quantity of mud, which is heaped up and embanked by the south-west winds that prevail at the time.  It would, therefore, be of little use to remove the sandbanks without giving the San Mateo, the cause of their existence, a direct and separate outlet into the lake.