An essay on the principle of population, or, A view of its past and present effects on human happiness, with an inquiry into our prospects respecting the future removal or mitigation of the evils which it occasions / by T.R. Malthus.

  • Malthus, T. R. (Thomas Robert), 1766-1834.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the principle of population, or, A view of its past and present effects on human happiness, with an inquiry into our prospects respecting the future removal or mitigation of the evils which it occasions / by T.R. Malthus. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of the males, which is exercised almost as soon as they find strength in their arms to inflict a blow. Some of these unfortunate beings have been observed with more scars on their shorn heads, cut in every direction, than could well be counted. Mr. Collins feelingly says, “ The condition of these women is so wretched, that I have often, on seeing a female child borne on its mother’s shoulders, an- ticipated the miseries to which it was born, and thought it would be a mercy to destroy it.”1 In another place, speaking of Benni- long’s wife being delivered of a child, he says, “ I here find in my papers a note, that for some offence Beunilong had severely beaten this woman in the morning, a short time before she was de- livered.” 2 Women treated in this brutal manner must necessarily be sub- ject to frequent miscarriages, and it is probable that the abuse of very young girls, mentioned above as common, and the too early union of the sexes in general, would tend to prevent the females from being prolific. Instances of a plurality of wives were found more frequent than of a single wife ; but what is extraordinary, Mr. Collins did not recollect ever to have noticed children by more than one. He had heard from some of the natives, that the first wife claimed an exclusive right to the conjugal embrace, while the second was merely the slave and drudge of both.3 An absolutely exclusive right in the first wife to the conjugal embrace seems to be hardly probable ; but it is possible that the second wife may not be allowed to rear her offspring. At any rate, if the observation be generally true, it proves that many of the women are without children, which can only be accounted for from the very severe hardships which they undergo, or from some par- ticular customs which may not have come to the knowledge of Mr. Collins. If the mother of a sucking child die, the helpless infant is buried alive in the same grave with its mother. The father himself places his living child on the body of his dead wife, and having thrown a large stone upon it, the grave is instantly filled by the other natives. This dreadful act was performed by Co-le-be, a native well known to our colonists, and who, on being talked to on the subject, justi- fied the proceeding, by declaring that no woman could be found . who would undertake to nurse the child, and that therefore it must have died a much worse death than that which he had given it. Mr. Collins had reason to believe that this custom was generally j prevalent, and observes that it may in some measure account for j the thinness of the population.4 Such a custom, though in itself perhaps it might not much affect j the population of a country, places in a strong point of view the ; 1 Account of Collins’s New South Wales, Appendix, p. 583. 2 Id. Appendix, note, p. 562. 3 Id. Appendix, p. 560. 4 Id. Appendix, p. 606.