ABSTRACT
The abundance of food, fresh water and fine salt made the islands a vital port of call for the first European voyagers in the Pacific, and for the traders and whalers who followed in their wake. Seen from the deck of visiting vessels, the prospect was indeed a pleasing one of lush vistas enlivened by the diligent activities of farmers and fisherfolk, basking in a propitious climate in which a state of plenty was enjoyed by all - but appearances were misleading. In the midst of plenty there was scarcity, in the presence of richness there was relative poverty, and in all the anthropological literature there is little to rival this striking example of the way in which the bounties of nature have been gainsaid by the constraints of culture.
