The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-11-29

The following narrative of travel ap-
peared in the Newton Mass.1 Journal
of Nov. 4
Honolulu, September, 1904.
The written history of these islands
begins with Captain Cooks discovery
in 1778. Historians and ethno1ogists tell
us that the natives are of Polynesian
race, Of Aryan stock migrating at re-
mote periods from Asia Minor through
India, Sumatra and Java to the South
Pacific Islands, thence TO New Zealand,
Samoa, Tahiti and Hawaii. This is
corroborated not only. by comparison
of the races but by archives of the
priesthood and by traditions of over
forty generations.
The Hawaiian legends are as roman
tic and picturesque as those of the
more classical races and fully as well
authenticated. In my trip to the vol
cano of Kilauea I met two ladies,
natives and residents of New Zealand.
of English parentage, travelling like
myself for study and observation who
told me that. they had found so many
names in these Hawaiian Islands cor
responding substantially with names in
their own, both of people and places,
that it was constant surprise to
them
Speaking of Captain Cook 1 recall
the account of his death as it appear
ed in the school readers and speakers
of my boyhood. The feeling of indig-
nation at what I regarded as a cold
blooded assassination had fingered with
me until my reading in preparation for
this journey, and now that / am here
and have discussed the matter from
both standpoints-one of which the
aforesaid readers and speakers failed
to give-I am quite reconciled. 1t ap-
pears to me as a piece of stern retrib-
ution and grim justice. Captain Cook
and his sailors were unfaithful TO al
most all of the rules of courtesy and
fair play. They defled the temples OF
the people and their gods, lampooned
the living and reviled the dead.
The total area of the islands is 6740
square miles. Captain Cooks estimate
of the population was 100000 The
entire population of the Hawaiian Is
lands now is about $4,000, of which
$1,000 are native born and $4,000 for
eign born. CT the native born, about
$4,000 are of the aboriginal race, about
one-third of which are mixed.
There are 10000 white people, $4,000
Chinese, &C, 900 japanese, a. few negroes
and from to 5000 Portuguese and Por-
to Ricans. the latter having been re-
Gently introduced to work on the sugar
plantations.
However. it is not for the purposes
of this article to go further into statis-
tics than would seem necessary for an
intelligent understanding of the dis
cussion
The time is past for a controversy
over annexation. excepting by politi-
clans rather than patriots. These is
lands are a part of the United States
of America, and, while I have met a
few politicians in the States who pre-
dieted their eountry's ruin in conse-
quence, I have not found such here of
any race or nation.
Until within rs years feudal aris
tocracy prevailed here as pronounced
as that of the Middle Ages in Europe.
The lands were vested ir the Crown.
which allotted portions for civil or mill
itary services with limited power of
transmission and alienation, and these
in turn, leased small tracts TO the COM
mon people who held nothing in fee
simple
Then came the missionaries of both
the Roman Catholic and Protestant
faiths. The Catholic missionaries sue