SANDWDCH ISLAND NOTES. * THESE " Notes " of a voyage
from California to the Sandwich Islands, and of excursions through several parts of them, are ap- parently an American importation with =English titlepage. The author at all events is an American of the broadest stamp. He is fluent in the style of the stump orator, and with about as much care, knowledge, or logic in the sense of large understanding, as dis- tinguishes that product of the Far West. He is, moreover, a tho- rough " annexer," whether it be an extension of a state by appro- priation of territory, or of a book by hacknied quotations and docu- ments. In fact, a main object of his Notes is to enforce the an- nexation of the Sandwich Islands' without the least regard to the rights of King Kamehameha the Second, or any other rights, but with a fulsome display of "loyalty," "regard, "esteem," and so forth. These phrases, however, emanate from the great body of American citizens resident in the capital, and who take upon them- selves to call meetings pass resolutions, interfere with the Govern-
ment, and desire his meetings, to dismiss certain Ministers, rather than from our author. He goes more plainly to his object.
There is not much in the volume in comparison with its bulk. The author's flowery fluency enables hint to spin pages out of no- thing fresher than a moonlight at sea, a cascade, a cemetery, or other memorials of the past, which reveries he garnishes with quo- tations from Byron and others. His more direct descriptions of the remarkable scenery and natural phenomena of the •&ndwitili Islands lack novelty. We have had them already through missionaries or scientific explorers, and better done than by this writer, whose pen is apt to run away with him. Much knocking about the world, seemingly in the East as well as in the West—" he has travelled among the Arabs, Turks, and Franks"— has neither enlarged his mind nor enlightened his prejudices ; but it has given him a species of moral toleration. His remarks on the rigid requirements of the Missionaries, and on the laws passed by their influence to restrain those vices which can only be con- trolled by the individuals themselves, through domestic training, a "sound and religious education," and the operation of public opinion, are judicious. The facts employed to illustrate his re- marks throw a light upon the immorality of the natives. The same subject is exhibited in the accounts that support his argu- ments against the notion that they are foreigners who have caused the vices, miseries, and reduced numbers of the islanders. The accounts are bad enough which he gives of the natives as they are ; there is much more, he says, which, he dares not write ; it is probable that their customs before the group -was visited by the White man were revolting and unnatural. We doubt, however, whether the three loathsome diseases which obtain ex- tensively in the islands, disfiguring and rapidly destroying the natives, are not imported. Independently of disease, the presence of a superior and more energetic race has a tendency to destroy the population of small places by its depressing effects : we say small places, because the same effect is not observed in "fin- dostan, nor among Negroes. If this account of the physical, and moral state of the islanders, and of their fast declining ninn- hers, could be thoroughly relied upon, it would be what the au- thor uses it for—an argument in favour of "annexation." The hypocritical pretence of advantage to the Hawaiians may be passed
• Sandwich Island Notes. By a Mole. Published by Low and Son.
over, but the removal of a race such as he describes would be a gain to morality and a relief to themselves. There is a good deal of inconsistency in his pictures of the peo- ple, not from intention so much as from the changing nature of the sitters. Sometimes we have pictures of statuesque health and beauty, at other times the natives are drawn as dirty and revoltingly diseased. A similar contrariety is traceable in the account of their qualities. Sooth to say, however, the "na- tural man "—the man without education or restraint from external influences, and abandoned to his own will—seems bad enough ; the White man worse perhaps than the Coloured races. Here is a transient sample.
'While journeying along this shore, I met a singular-looking object. His face was bronzed by a Tropical sun, his eyes were blood-shotteu, and a short woollen shirt was his only garment. His haggard face, his matted hair and beard, his rapid steps, almost induced me to believe he had just escaped from a retreat for the insane. He was once a White man ; but a four years' inter- course with the most debased and wretched of the Natives had turned him into a complete savage. He could hardly read, much less write his own name. The poor wretch was a libel on the enlightened State of Connecti- cut, for from that part of the United States he originally came. He refused to tell his name. At this, however, I was not surprised. His downcast eyes indicated a sense of shame of his abject condition. His personal mien and appearance established more firmly than ever in my own mind the theory that the White man, severed from the civilizing influences of society, is capa- ble of becoming a more debased wretch than the savages or aborigines among whom he lives. Such a scene is calculated to draw tears from the eyes of angels, and to fill the bosom of any living man with sorrow for the brutal condition of many of his species. I have witnessed many such scenes on the Sandwich Islands, and they are numerous on the islands scattered over the wide Pacific Ocean."
There is some inconsistency, too, in the author's notice of the Missionaries. At times he ascribes a good deal of merit to the men and of success to their labours, with an occasional touch of pious unction, not at all in keeping with other passages. Then he denounces their interference with the government, legislation, and police—apparently with judgment ; and gives an instance of clerical persecution such as the following. "A thoroughly enter- prising Yankee," Mr. Titcomb, attempted the production of silk as a commercial speculation, thinking the climate adapted to it.
"Being a total novice in the business, he procured what he subsequently knew purely from the study of books that treated on the subject. After ac- quiring a knowledge of it himself, he began to impart practical lessons to some of the Natives living in the valley. Mulberry-trees were cultivated ; silk-worms were procured, and an immense cocoonery was erected. Through his untiring perseverance he soon raised several crops of good silk, samples of which were forwarded to Mazatlan and the city of Mexico, for which he received a very high price. The mulberry-leaves which an acre of soil Would produce were sufficient food for worms that would raise fifty pounds of raw silk. The article could be raised at an average cost of 1 dollar 50 cents to 2 dollars per pound. Numbers of the Natives, of both sexes, were profitably employed, and many of them became much attached to the busi- ness. • • • •
"But after such an interesting success, he failed! An inquiry into the failure is both natural and instructive. It happened that, as on all other silk-plantations, the worms had to be fed on Sundays (!). This did not exactly suit the rigid notions of the ecclesiastics that controlled the spiritual interests of the Natives. The planter was in the habit of issuing paper notes, redeemable, at certain periods, in cash or goods, as the labourers might choose. The first step, therefore, was to create a distrust among them rela- tive to the value of this kind of payment. To a great extent it succeeded. One by one the labourers left him, until nearly two-thirds of them had dis- appeared from the premises. Every obstacle was thrown in the planter's way. The winding up of the drama was positively to interdict Natives employ- ing a few minutes on the Sabbath to feed silk-worms; and this was done on a penalty of excommunication, and the pains of an endless shower of hell- fire beyond the grave."
Here is a story of a better kind : for mere forms and dogmas, or reading and writing, have no permanent influence on the un- civilized mind, but rather breed conceited hypocrites or prigs, if unaccompanied by arts that excite industry.
"Civilization is best tested by its results. One of these testa was the school of Hawaiian youth, of both sexes, under the care of Mr. Dwight. There was a class of girls in that school who had been organized by himself into a sewing-class. It was the first time in my life, and it may be the last, that I saw a class of girls whose sewing occupations were under the super- vision of a gentleman. But Mr. Dwight was a Yankee, and a Yankee can turn his attention to anything, for he certainly is the most remarkable spe- cimen of the genus homo that has ever helped to compose the family of man. Aside from Mr. Dwight's Yankeeism, he combined the sterling qualities of a gentleman with the deep and eloquent sympathies of a refined Christian woman. He loved those girls, and in return they loved him. It was a love such as is reciprocated by father and child, lie was their physician when sick, their friend and adviser in health. There were not wanting those, however, among his own brethren,' who rather felt inclined to stigmatize his celibacy ; for he was a bachelor.
" But to return to this sewing-class. Mr. Dwight bad taught his school- girls to sew, and their work would have honoured the instructions of the most punctilious woman. They cut and made up sundry unmentionables for gentlemen, besides cutting and making all their own drapery. The articles they manufactured for gentlemen were sold in stores. In several instances they have commanded a ready and lucrative sale at the agricultural fairs in Honolulu ; where they would favourably compare with the needlework of the foreign belle, upon whose education years of time and purses of money had been expended. But they had some inducement to be industrious. For an article which would sell tor two dollars the maker of it would receive a com- pensation of seventy-five cents, and so on in a regular ratio. With the avails of their own labour they furnished their own wardrobes, which were highly creditable. That class of sewing-girls numbered about thirty ; and they never met or dispersed in their usual capacity without singing a hymn mid invoking the blessing and protection of Heaven."
The exertions of the Missionaries, the presence of industrial and corrupting foreigners, with the national depression that great na- tional changes indicative of inferiority induce, have led to the discontinuance of those gymnastic exercises in which all the South Sea Islanders excelled. One aquatic exercise, and a noble one, still remains, though even the practice of that is declining.
"Of the numerous national games and amusements formerly practised by the Hawaiians surf-bathing is about the only one which has not become ex- tinct. Lahaina is the only place on the group where it is maintained with any degree of enthusiasm, and even there it is rapidly passing out of exist- ence. In other days there was no amusement which more displayed the skill or bestowed a greater physical benefit on the performer than this. Formerly it was indulged in by all classes of persons, of all ages and both sexes, from royalty to the lowest plebeian, at onetime and in the same place, Even the huge Regent Kaahumanu and others, by whose coffins I stood and pondered in the royal tomb at Honolulu, were in the habit of bathing in the surf at Lahaina. At this day the sport is confined more to the youthful por- tion of the community. "Surf-bathing is an exciting sport to the swimmer, and a cause for ex- citement and astenishment on the part of an unaccustomed spectator. The swimmers start out from the shore taking with them their surf-boards. These boards are of dimensions suited to the muscular strength and capacity of the swimmers. As they proceed seaward, they dive like ducks under- neath the heavy rollers, and come up On the other side. This course is pur- sued until the outermost roller is reached, sometimes nearly a mile from the shore. The higher the roller the more exciting and grand is the sport. Placing themselves on these boards, the bathers gradually approach the in- ward current of the roller as it sweeps over the reef, and, lying on the chest, striding, kneeling, or standing up on the board, they are borne on the foam- ing crest of the mighty wave with the speed of the swiftest race-horse toward the shore, where a spectator looks to see them dashed into pieces or maimed for life. By a dexterous movement, however, they slip off their boards into the water, grasp them in their hands, dive beneath the yet foaming and thundering surge, and go out seaward to repeat the sport. This they do for hours in succession, until a traveller is almost led to suppose they are am- phibious. This game involves great skill; it is acquired only by commen- cing it in the earliest childhood. A standing position on the swiftly-gliding surf-board is a feat of skill never yet surpassed by any circus-rider."
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