The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-01-08

| in respect to marriage; even conSanSuln-
eous union, by some strange exception
to the accepted physiological law, was
not so harmful as might be supposed.
There We're ties of natural affection, and
| humane kindness asserted itself, haV-
ing always been a prominent trait or the
| Hawaiians
| Hospitality was universal and was Oft
| en- carried to extremes. The chiefs ex-
ercise of authority was paternal as well
as despotic. The priests were not given
TO cruelty. Prisoners of war and infirm
natives Were preferred as sacrifices to
| the gods, and the victims were seldom
tortured. Places of refuge were provid-
ed for the vanquished. Praying to death
was an influence over the mind. not the
body; a sort of reversal of the modern
mind cure.
| Thus the Hawaiians, at the close of
the eighteenth century. presented some
marked contrasts. A mirthful people,
they had a most sombre religion. They
loved flowers. but worshipped hideous
idols. Poetic in temperament, and de-
lighting in their bards. they had no writ
ten language. Kindly, they propltiated
! their gods by bloody sacrifices. Hold
| ing women under strict tabu, their GUS
| toms concerning kinship and inheritance
Were generally in favor of the female
! lineage. Docile and amiable, they de-
| lighted in warfare. Their weapons were
| and yet were strong.
Taking, then, into consideration the in
herited ability and vitality of the Ha-
waiian race, it may be affirmed with
measure of confidence that, notwith-
stand ng the tendency to decline. they
| still possessed at the period of their dis
covery by Captain Cook the possibility
1 of recuperation and progress which, I'M
der favorable auspices might have given
them permanent foothold among the
races and nations that survive and -four
! ish in the great world of modern times.
! If the white men who influenced their
destiny between the years ITS and 1920
had all been like Vancouver or John
Young, the sovereignty of the group, as
achieved by Kamehameha 1 in 1875,
might have been moulded into solidar
! ity productive of rapid strides in ma
tional and social progress
| But from the date of Captain Cooks
arrival to the coming of the American
missionaries, a most debasing influence
dominated their lives. The white man
fastened on them an ineradicable curse.
There have never been snakes on the
Islands. but the most venomous serpents
would have been a merciful visitation
! in comparison with the vipers in human
! form that for more than thirty years
poisoned their bodies and conta minated
their minds.
Captain Cook himself impoverished the
nSluNeS DE MS demands, ana uSSpOHeu
them of such virtues they had, leav-
ing behind him a strong hatred of the
white man. Then followed men like
Captain Metcalf. who in revenge for the
killing of a sailor, collected hundreds Of
the natives. ostensibly for purposes of
friendly trade, and strewed the channel
with their dead bodies.
a trade in sandalwood, which sprung
up with China, laid intolerable burdens
on the kanakas. and reduced them al
most to the condition or slaves. De-
PRAYED white men remained on the ISL
ands; the few good commanders called
at the ports, advised and departed; the
resident whites, with few EXCEPTIONS
broke down the ancient restraints of
native customs and made the people rest
less and reckless. Gambling and rum
ruined both chiefs and the common ma
t!ves. The development of their worst.
instead of the survival of their best
traits, was Immediately perceptible
With the chiefs it was an era of inter
Island strife and intrigue. Kamehameha
I, the shrewdest and greatest native that
modern Hawaii has produced, saw the
danger and did his best to stem the tide.
Isaac Davis, mate of a ship, and John
Young, an intelligent sailor, being left
on the Islands, exerted themselves in
favor of good order; but the distillation
of the Xxi plant continued; large quanti>
ties of rum were imported, and chiefs
and kanakas alike drank to excess.
The abolition of idoIatry and the de- ,
struction of the temples followed almost
Immediately the death of the great king,
in 1919; yet this radical departure from
the old religion, with the overthrow Of
the tabu system, only left the people in
superstitious skepticism and freedom
from restraint. The most active agent
in this change was the queen regent,
who, coming into absolute authority, de-
sired free herself from
limitations of the tabu.
In 1920 the American missionaries ar
rived. They came a generation too late
If they had preceded the flood of evil in
iuences with which the bad whites had
inundated the group, it is possible that
they might have won the king and per-
suaded him to withstand in a greater
degree the vicious stimulation which
swept over the Islands, Even at their
later coming, had their views respecting
the education of heather been those of
Gen. s. c. Armstrong, of Hampton In
sutute, himself the son of a Hawaiian
had they established, as he
it, "a routine of industrious
habit, and been more plastic in their
of the true methods in dealing
with this primitive and inferior people,
they might have toughened the fiber and
prolonged the life of the race. But lit |
seems doubtful says the author of The
Making of Hawaii, whether they or any
others Cat the period of their arrivaD
would have had any profound or perma-
nent effect
The religious training given to the ma
tives by these devoted American men
ana women produced remarkable
change in many respects, both among
me chiefs and the people. The queen re-
GENT. kaahumanu, truly converted to
in 1875, seconded the new in
'truction- She had around her a fine
array Of chiefs, many of whom became
genuine converts She herself had been
Won by the patient gentIeness of the I'M
selfish missionaries, who were with her
turing a dangerous illness
other rulers, like Kamehameha III de-
'ired mainly the valuable aid of the mis-
'ionaries in such matters as resistance
o encroachments of foreigners and the
making of laws for the better govern
nent OF the people. She encouraged the
Shristian workers in a higher spirit; all
hat was possible to do in religious in
by the small band of pious