The Sandwich Islanders.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 184, 20 May 1873, Page 7

The Sandwich Islanders.

Mark Twain writes the following, concerning the natives of the Sandwich Islands, to the Tribune: —“ The natives of the Island number only about 50,000, and the whites 3000, chiefly Americans. According to Captain Cook, the natives numbered 400,000 less than a hundred years ago. But the traders brought labour and fancy diseases—-in other words, long, deliberate, infallible destruction; and the missionaries brought the means of grace and got them ready. So the two forces are working along harmoniously, and anybody who knows anything about figures can tell you when the last Kanaka will be in Abraham’s bosom, and his islands in the hands of the whites. It is the same as calculating an eclipse—if you get started right you cannot miss it. For nearly a century the natives have been keeping up a ratio of about three births to five deaths, and you can see what that must result in. No doubt in 50 years a Kanaka will be a curiosity in his own land, and as an investment will be superior to a circus. I am truly sorry that these people are dying out, for they are the most interesting savages there are. Their language is soft and musical, it has not a hissing sound in it, and all their words end with a vowel. They would call Jim Fisk Jimmy Fikki, for they will even do violence to a proper name if it grates too harshly in its natural state. The Italian is raspy and disagreeable compared to the Hawaiian tongue. These people used to go naked, but the missionaries broke that up ; in the towns the men wear clothing now, and in the country a plug-hat and a breach-clout; or if they have company they put on a shirt, collar, and a vest. Nothing but religion and education could have worked these admirable changes. The women wear a single loose calico gown, that falls without a break from neck to heels. These natives are the simplest, the kindesthearted, the most unselfish creatures that bear the image of their Maker. Where white influence has not changed them, they will make any chance stranger welcome, and divide their all with them—a trait which has never existed among any other people, perhaps. They live only for to-day ; to-morrow is a thing wdiich does not enter into their calculations. I had a native youth in my employ at Honolulu, a graduate at a missionary college, and he divided his time between translating the Greek Testament and taking care of a piece of property which I; considered a horse. Whenever this boy could! collect his wages, he would go and lay out j the entire amount, all the way up from 50c. \ to a dollar, in poi (which is a paste made of I the taro root, and is the national dish), and I call in all the native ragamuffins that came I along to help him eat it. And there, in the 1 rich grass, under the tamarind trees, the! gentle savages would sit and gorge till all was gone. My boy would go hungry and content for a day or two, and then some Kanaka he probably had never seen before would invite to a similar feast, and giVe him a fresh start.”