The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-11-19

DEPoPuLATtoH OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS -
The recent accounts from the Pacific have re-
vived the subject of the depopulation of the
Sandwich Islands--or rather, more properly, of
the extinction of the aboriginal inhabitants, and
the occupation of the Islands by another race
IL appears from late enumeration that the mum
Der OF deaths during the past year has more
than doubled the number OF births. This pro-
cess, it is evident cannot continue through
long series Of years, without the extinction Of
the entire population. This depopuiation is not
a new thing, but has been going on for long
series OF years Captain Cook, in l778, esti-
mated the population of the Hawaiian Islands
at 100000 MIR. Ellis, a missionary, in 1890
states the number to be about 100000 By a
census taken during the present year, the whole
population is found to have fallen since $780,
that is, in twenty years-to S4,l65 being de-
cline Of forty per cent. during that period But
the census, giving us returns of births ard
deaths for the last year, shows that the ratio of
decrease during that year was greater, much
greater, than The average mentioned. Thus the
whole number of deaths for the year was
1920, while the whole number Of births was
only l,422 leaving an excess of deaths over
births of 2S98. Tie rate of dminution, there
fore, for the year, was no less than three and a
half per cent. nearly of the whole population.
Should this rate be continued, the race will be
entirely extinct before the close Of the century,
in fact within thirty or forty years. , wv. 81. ....
In specializing upon this subject, the Philadel-
phia United States Gazette observes :s..'. Ie d
"The general law under which barbarous
tribes, existing in n state of nature melt away
in the face Of civilized rLces is we'll understood,
| and nowhere be ter than on our own continent,
where the red man vanishes from before his
white rival like fog-wreath under the morning
sun. But it is not this law TO which we must
| look for the decay Of the Polynesian families,
unless in the great New Zealand islands, where
| recently actual colonization and the strength of
the British arm have struck direct and deadly
blow at the native race. Colonization, properly
speaking, has not been attempted in the other
isles of the Pacific and in none of them have
there been long and bloody wars waged by Euro
pean invaders. They have been for years the
scenes Of missionary enterprise, where religion
and civilization have been sOwn together in a
ready field, and peace has succeeded former
crl Of strife. Before the missionaries came, the
islanders were rapidly decayng and their pre-.
sence and humane efforts have been unavailing
to arrest the decrease. We can understand
how, when left 10 themselves, in state Of con-
slant warfare, isle with isle, tribe with tribe and
almost man with man, protesting religion of
massacre and a code of systematic infanticde,
their numbers continually declined. The diff
Guilty is to account for their dimnution no,o,
when all kno IN causes of depopulation have
been removed, and n salubrious climate and fer.
tile soil invite the rapid multiplication of the
species. Neither famine nor pestllence have had
Il share in the work, the cause OF which is mys
terry that battles every conjecture. 1t seems
thing of fate, strange, mournful, and impenetra-
bic The looker-on in vain tortures his inge-
| nuity to discover the portentous secret The
shaft flies from an invisible bow. The victims
fall here, there, every where, sngy, not in null
titudes, and therefore so quietly that the NOR
tality is scarcely noted or thought Of until, an
nualIy, the aggregate of deaths is made known
and contrasted with the inferior aggregate of
births. Perhaps it is not altogether so much
the difficulty that more persons die in the Pacific
islands, in proportion to the whole population,
than in other countries, as that fewer are born
there. The river of life is poisoned at its foun-
| tain"