The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-02-10

The history of a nation is often sin
gularly like that of the individual.
There are. much the same. temptations
and conflicts and in the end stability
and respect if the right is chosen and
decay and death if evil is allowed to
rule. To a nation emerging from the
night of heathenism into the light of
civilization this battle must be especial
ly severe. The. prince of darkness is
sure to contest his rule to the last, and
bring forth all the agencies, human
and satanic, which his resources yield,
| against the advance of the King of
| Righteousness.
| Of all the agencies which Satan ever
devised to enslave the souls of men,
and keep both individuals and nations
from rising into light and liberty, none
love of strong drink. 1t blunts the
| conscience it benumbs the intellect; it
deadens the affections; it weakens the
will; it destroys the soul and body to-
gether 1t is not strange then, that
when the enemy of all righteousness
found that this Hawaiian nation had
resolved to turn and serve the living
God, that the devil sent his own rum
and whisky and gin in here as the surest
antidote to all that is good
1t may be helpful to us who are try
ing to combat this deadly evil in our
day, to trace its career from the earliest
history of the Hawaiian people, and OBJ
serve what a powerful spirit of evil it
has ever been, and how the early kings
and chiefs recognized this fact, and
used their utmost efforts to combat the
evil, assisted by missionary influence,
in spite of the opposition of a large
part of the white traders and other
residents here.
From the remotest times of which
either history or legend speak, the Ha-
waiians used the liquor made from
ava. 1t was their only intoxicating
drink, and then as now produced
stupid kind of drunkenness, affected the
skin; inflamed the eyes, and caused
premature decrepitude. It's effects are
benumbing rather than inflaming like
spirituous liquors, and on some accounts
less harmful. 1t was reserved to men
of the white races to introduce the lat
ter poison into these islands. 1t has
been well said that "heathenism is new
er so degraded but that civilization can
give it something more degrading
In the year 1902, eighteen years before
the arrival of the first missionaries, an
English ship, the Margaret, after cruis-
ing among the southern islands, visited
this group. One of the officers, John
Turnbull, wrote an interesting account
of the voyage. Upon leaving the So
ciety Islands he records this remark:
There is no punishment adequate 70
the wickedness of the wretch who would
import a cargo of spirituous liquors into
the Society or Sandwich Islands. 1t
would in every respect be tantamount
to the willful administration of an equal
quantity of poison, as the extent of the
evil would only be bounded by the
destruction Of the whole of the popula-
ton" Who can tell what sin and suf-
fering would have been saved, had the
public sentiment of Christendom sus-
tanned this judgment! Trading vessels |
then, in addition to the useful articles |
which these people demanded, such as
clothing, hardware, etc, always kept a |
SIlpDIv Of rim which tho pativac v1,era /
not slow in learning to use. In this way |
the taste for intoxicants was readily in
troduced into these and other islands.
Mr.. Turnbull found that some con-
victs from Botany Bay had previously |
escaped to these islands, and, in return I
for some service rendered Kamehame
ha I, had been put in possession of small !
tracts of land, upon which they raised
sugar cane, and from this contrived to
distill sort of liquor. Neglect of work
and quarreis being the natural result,
the king made some mild remonstrance.
This being of no avail, he gave them to
understand that at their next fight
ing party, he would make one of the
company, which hint brought these Bot
any Bay settlers to their senses. But
as might be expected, before long the
king himself acquired a relish for
spirits, and navigators who touched at
these shores, at that early day, carried
on a lively trade in rum and other
liquors. Mr.. Turnbull relates that this
taste became so excessive on the part
of the king that Young and Davis,
white men residing here. became anxious
for their own safety during his periods
Of drunkenness and made attempts to
escape from the islands. In one of his
times of sobriety. the king demanded
Of them-What could induce them to