The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-01-08
AND
PRESENT
Native HaWaiian Of
Yesterday and
Today.
REV. DR.. TWOMBLEY
READS A PAPER
Interesting Essay by a Former
Pastor Of Central Union.
Read at Conference.

| HE fOLLO w iI<OT paper OF Sredt
| local interest was read at Mo-
| = hawk Conference by Rev. DR..
Twombley, a-former pastor of Central
Union church:
The dreamy, sunlit haze Of legend and
romance that surrounds the Hawaiian
native of yesterday makes the descrip-
| ton of him as he was in actual life a
to lie under the waving fronds of the
palm in indolent reverie, with aromatic
| odors in the air, and the surf gently
ripping on the shore? Why drag him
| into the light of modern investigation,
thus leaving one the less type on earth
of a barbarian race, happy in it's ig-
norance, and innocent of contact with
communicating civilization?
| The islands, in all their fascinating
beauty of semi-tropeaI verdure and
variegated landscape, still suggest the
domain of favored race. Mysterious
caverns, spouting caves, beetling crags,
verdant slopes and snow-capped noun
tains inspire the imagination to people
this isolated realm with a race undis-
| turbed by care, cruelty or fear. Why,
then, change the picture of this Par
adise of the Pacific" into an abode OF
| indecorous pagans, and the roaming
4
place of chiefs and tribes, unpleasant in
their nudity to the modern mind?
The answer is, We turn our search
| light back into the past and upon the
present condition of these islanders be-
cause they have come under the author
| ity of our republic and are an integral
| part OF our nation, and because grave
| problems confront us in relation to
their welfare and our own. To aid in
card romance. and consider what the
Hawaiians have been ana what they
now are. Hard, dry facts alone can en-
, able us to see clearly by what action
and legislation the United States gov
eminent can make this Gem of the
Tropics" sparkle in the new light Of
republican liberty.
What, then, was the native Hawaiian
of yesterday? 1t is conceded that the
early Hawaiians were better than any
other Polynesian race in intelligence
and the rude arts. They had astronom-
ical knowledge, traditions of Noah and
a supreme being. Antiquarians affirm
that they are not to be classed &c "sav-
ages" and that when the first migra-
ton came from the South Sea Islands
to Hawaii they brought with them the
possibilities of greatness as a nation.
The second migration, in the eleventh
and twelfth centuries increased those
possibilities. and gave the islanders
two hundred and fifty years Of peace
and prosperity. This was Hawan's
golden age. Relics of this age are ex-
tant in architectural and traditional
tokens.
But when the next five centuries left
the group in complete isolation from the
outer world, the inhabitants lapsed into
a state of degeneracy; war became
chronic; sexual promiscuity was gen.
eral custom: the organized instinct of
morality" was greatly impaired; habit
created an inferior code; the chiefs be-
came despotic. and the priests invented
a more cruel ritual, making the "tabu,
which was at first merciful provision,
the nucleus of a most oppressive sys-
tenn.
When CAPTAIN Cook discovered the
islands in 177S. a stupefying intoxicant
was in daily use; women gave away
their infants, or buried them alive, to
avoid the trouble of rearing them. |
Food was not abundant for the three
hundred thousand or more inhabitants
on the islands. of which the area is no
larger than that of Massachusetts. and !
of which but a small portion was I'M |
der cultivation. There were no four
footed animals except dogs, hogs and
mice. unless lizards may be placed in
that class. There were fowl, but flesh 4
was eaten mainly by the chiefs and
priests Fishes were plentiful: poi. a
root mashed and fermented, was the
national food. Cereals were unknown,
and women were forbidden, on pain Of
Heath by the tabu. to eat pork. turtles,
certain kinds of fish. bananas and CO.
,oanuts.
However. the inherent vitality OF the
race had thus far persisted in retard-
ng any very rapid progress in physical
There was as yet no
morbid deviation from the original
.ype which made the Hawaiians as
ace incapable of fulfilling their func-
ions in the world" But the racial or
yanism was debilitated in spite of re-
Individual exceptions. The
population had begun to decrease In
,umbers. Progress in the rude arts
vas checked, and the course of the ma
ion slowly tended downward.
War kept the national physique up to
/ fair standard. although it diminished
ne numbers of the male population
md drained off the best blood. 4 sin
RE battle, called the Battle OF the sand
Hills. on the island of Maui in 1116.
vas the most fatal blow the islands
yer received in the loss OF their high
hiefs. The land never recovered from
he effects of that sanguinary fight.
Yet the games surf swimming and the I
,attIraI cheerfulness of the natives pre-
served them in comparative cleanliness
md strength. The chiefs lived on the
.est the land afforded. and were tail and
Their women were inclined 10
besity. but when young were fair and
veil proportional The climate, which
,duced idlenesS was favorable to health.
secured many physical ad~
and was not very detrimental Z
d what we call morality Nature pro-
-ided cures in spite of native doctors
.,,-,s,- was unknown The Hawaiians