the small-pox came and reduced them by one-fourth. Six months

later a woman developed tubercular consumption; the disease spread

like a fire about the valley, and in less than a year two

survivors, a man and a woman, fled from that new-created solitude.

A similar Adam and Eve may some day wither among new races, the

tragic residue of Britain. When I first heard this story the date

staggered me; but I am now inclined to think it possible. Early in

the year of my visit, for example, or late the year before, a first

case of phthisis appeared in a household of seventeen persons, and

by the month of August, when the tale was told me, one soul

survived, and that was a boy who had been absent at his schooling.

And depopulation works both ways, the doors of death being set wide

open, and the door of birth almost closed. Thus, in the half-year

ending July 1888 there were twelve deaths and but one birth in the

district of the Hatiheu. Seven or eight more deaths were to be

looked for in the ordinary course; and M. Aussel, the observant

gendarme, knew of but one likely birth. At this rate it is no

matter of surprise if the population in that part should have

declined in forty years from six thousand to less than four

hundred; which are, once more on the authority of M. Aussel, the

estimated figures. And the rate of decline must have even

accelerated towards the end.

A good way to appreciate the depopulation is to go by land from

Anaho to Hatiheu on the adjacent bay. The road is good travelling,

but cruelly steep. We seemed scarce to have passed the deserted

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