The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1873-01-16

oooh' INV uttiNCS iittHlDtItN tVV,poV ltSS
than hundred years ago. But the traders
brought labor and fancy diseases-in other
words, long, deliberate, intallible destruc-
tion and the missionaries brought the
means of grace and got them ready. So
the two forces are working along har-
moniously, and anybody who knows any
thing about figures can tell you exactly
when the last Kanaka will be in Abraham's
bosom and his islands in the hands of the
whites. 1t is the same as calculating an
eclipse-if you get started right, you can
not miss it. For nearly century the ma
tives have been keeping up a ratio of
about three births to five deaths and you
can see what that must result in No
doubt in fifty years a Kanaka will be a
curiosity in his own land, and as an in
vestment will be superior to circus
| am truly sorry that these people are
dying out, for they are about the most iu-
terestng savages there are Their Ian
guage is soft and musical. it has not
kissing sound in it, and all their words
end with a vowel. They would call Jim
Fisk Jnnnay Fikki, for they will even %
violence to proper name if it CRATES 600
harshly in its natural state. The Italian
is raspy and disagreeable compared to the
Hawaiian tongue.
These people used to 90 naked, but the
missionaries broke that up; in the towns
the men wear clothing now. and III the
country plug hat and Il breech-clout; or
if they have company they put on u shirt
collar and q vest. Nothing but religion
and education could lave wrought these
admirable changes. The women wear u
single loose calico gown. that falls with
out break from neck to heels.
In the old times, to speak plainly. there
was absolutely no bar to the commerce of
the sexes. 70 refuse the solicitations of
a stranger was regarded as contempti-
BILE thing tor a girl or woman to do; but
the missionaries have so bitterly fought
this thing that they have succeeded at
least in driving it out Of sight-and now
it exists only in reality, not in name
These natives are the simplest, the
kindest-hearted, the most unselfish crea-
lures that bear the image OF the Maker.
Where white influence has not changed
them they will make any chance stranger
welcome, and divide their all with him-a
trait which has never existed among any
other people, perhaps. They live only for
to-day; tomorrow is thing which does
not enter into their calculations | had n
native youth in my employ iii Honolulu, Il
graduate OF \ missionary collewc, and he
divided his time between transating the
Greek Testament and taking care nt Il
piece of property OF mine which | con-
sidered horse Whenever this boy could
collect his wages, he would 90 and lay
out the entire amount, all the way up from
fifty cents to q dollar in D0j (Which is a
paste made of the tarO root and is the ma
tional dish), and call in all the native
ragamutfins that came along to help him
eat it. And there. in the rich grass under
the tamarind trees, the gentle savaCeS
would sit and gorge till all was gone My
boy would 60 hungry and content fora dav
or two, and then some kanaka he prob
ably had never seen before would invite
him to a similar feast, and give him u
fresh start
CURIOUS, MORAL, AND RELIGIOUS ASPECTS.
The ancient religion was only 4 inmble
of curious superstitions. The shark seems
to have been the god they chiefly Worship
ped-or rather sought to prOptiate. Then
there was PPlc, a goddess who presided
over the terrible fires of Kicauea; minor
gods We're not scarce. The natives are
all Christians, now-evcry one OF them :;
they all belong to the church, and are
tonder of theology than they are of pie
they will sweat out q sermon as long as
the Declaration of Independence the
dullPr it is the more it inlatuatps them
they would sit there and stew and stew in
trance of enjoyment till they hoated
away III their own grease if the ministers
would stand watch-and- watch, and sec
them through, Sunday schools are ?
iavorite dissipation with them, and they
never get enough, II there was physical
as well as mental ntoxication in this limb
of the service, they would never draw a
to the native. He can read his neatly
printed Bible Gin the native tongue
every solitary man, woman, and little
child in the islands can), and he reads ii
over and over again. And he reads a
whole world Of moral tales, built on the
good old Sunday-schools book pattern
exaggerated, and he worships their heroes
heroes who walk the world with their
mouths full of butter, and who are simply
imposSiblv chuckle-h headed and pious
And he knows all the hymns YOU ever
heard in your life, and he sings them in a
soft, pleasant voice, to native words
that make son JOrdan's stormy banks
stand' sound as grotesquelv and sweetly
foreign to you as if it were Il dictionary
grinding wrong end first through sugar
mill. Now you see how these natives.
great and small old and young, are satu-
rated with religion-at least the poetry
and the music OF it. But as to the practice
OF 1t, they vary. Some Of the nobler pre-
cepts OF Christianity they have always
practiced naturally and they always will
Some OF the minor precepts they as
naturally do not practice, and rs naturally
they never will. The white man shas
taught them to lie, and they take to it
pleasantly and without sin--for there can
not be much sin III q thing which they
cannot be made to comprehend is a sin.
Adultery they look upon as POLITICALLY
wrong but practically proper
These people are sentimentally religious
perhaps that describes it. They pray
and sing and moralize in fair weather, but
when they get into trouble, that is ''busi-
ness'-and then they are tolerably apt to
drop poetry and call on the Great Shark
God of their fathers to give them Il lift
Their ancient superstitons are in their
picoN 'tiit tpiVo, dlltl illCN http ClolpplilG
out now and then in the most natural and
pardonable way.
The natives make excellent seamen, and
the whalers would rather have them than
any other race They are so tractable,
docile and willing, and withal so faithful.
that they rank first in the sugar-planters'
esteem rs laborers Do not these facts
speak well for our poor, brown Sunday
school children of the far islands
There is a small property tax. and any
native who has an income of $50 wear
can vote.
THE WHITES AND SUGAR.
The 5000 whites in the islands handle
all the money and carry on all the COM
merce and agrculture-and superintend
the religion. Americans are largely in
the majority. These whites are sugar
planters, merchants. whalc-ship officers,
and missionaries. The missionaries are
sorry the most of the other whites are
there, and these latter are sorry the mis-
sionares don't migrate. The most of the
belt of slopng land that borders the sea
and rises toward the bases of the noun
tains, is rich and fertile There are only