BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
By James Sawyer
The most of the following history was from the pen of one who resided at the Sandwich Islands for several years. The language of the Sandwich Islanders is radically the same as that spoken throughout Polynesia, at the Society and Friendly Isles, and at New Zealand. I have in my possession works printed in the native tongue from separate groups which were obtained sixteen years ago (not six years ago as stated in a former No. of REVIEW), which attest this fact. The government is a despotism. The rank of king and chiefs is hereditary. All rights of property and power are vested in the throne, and are at the disposal of the king whose will and word alone are law, although in important measures he generally takes the sentiments of the chiefs in council. Rank is hereditary in the females as in the males, in the three grades of the upper class. Polygamy exists among the chiefs. Of the men, sometimes one has three wives (and half-sisters at that); and one woman sometimes has two husbands. All chiefs have large landed estates under the king, and derive their support from yearly taxes upon them. Like the king, and governors of the different islands, they have every right,—even to that of life over the occupants of their plantations, and all other people of the common class. Besides a profusion of melons, cocoanuts, bananas, sugar cane, &c., of which they are constantly eating, the chiefs have regular meals of baked dog or pig, and pickled or raw fish, and poe, four times a day,—once in the morning as soon as they arise, another at 10 or 11 o'clock A. M., a third about 4 P. M., and a fourth at 9 or 10 in the evening. Their food was formerly served in wooden dishes, but now generally in china ware. It is placed on the ground before a group who, lounging on their mats in the attitude of the ancient Romans, partake of it with one hand, while they recline upon the other. Servants separate the meat with their hands, wiping them occasionally in their mouths or on their bare arms or legs, after which all eat from the same dishes, using their fingers instead of forks and spoons. Whatever pets the ladies have, whether pigs or dogs (and most have one of either), share from the common dishes without disturbance, unless they should be so ill-bred as to put their forefeet as well as their noses into their food, when a gentle tap will remind them of better manners. The houses of the chiefs are generally large, from 40 to 60 feet in length, 20 or 25 in breadth, and 18 or 20 in hight at the peak—all in one apartment, without windows or opening for light or air, except a wide door. Every chief has from 30 to 50 or more personal attendants. These have different offices. One is a pipe-lighter, another a spittoon-carrier, and others prepare and cook the food, &c. All, from the bosom friend to the pipe-lighter, eat from the same dish with their master. This portion of the inhabitants spend their lives principally in eating, and drinking, lounging, and sleeping, in the sports of the surf, in hearing the songs of the musicians, and in witnessing the performances of the dancers. The common people of the Sandwich Islands are called kanakas. They are a wretched people, blind in heart, and abject in poverty. The greatest wealth they can boast consists of a mat on which to sleep, a few folds of kapa, or native cloth to cover them, one calabash for water, and another for poe, and a rude implement or two to cultivate the ground, and the instruments used in their simple manufactories. Kalo, potatoes, and salt, with now and then a fish, constitute the general food, while all else they grow or take, and every result of their labor goes to meet the taxes levied by the king and his governors, and their chiefs. The spontaneous productions here are more limited than in the Society and South Sea Isles. Kalo is the principal food. It belongs to a genus known in parts of America as the Indian or French turnip. The roots of the plant are kept covered with water for from 9 to 15 months, though they continue for two or more years improving in quality to the end of that time. The kalo, after being cooked, is made into what is called poe. This laborious though simple process, made by beating and moulding, turn it into an adhesive mass like dough. It is then set aside into a calabash for fermentation. It is eaten by thrusting the forefinger of the right hand into the mass, and securing as much as will adhere to it, and passing it to the mouth with a hasty turn of the hand and finger. Next to kalo is the sweet potatoe. The building of what houses they have, construction of canoes, making of fishing nets, &c., is assigned to men, while the manufacture of cloth and mats belong to the women. The cloth is of tedious manufacture. It is the interior bark of the paper mulberry, beaten with a square stick of hard wood. Notwithstanding the variety of apparently-necessary employment both to women and men, few of either sex devote more than 4 or 5 hours out of the twenty-four to work. They partake of the indolence of character incident to the inhabitants of tropical climates, and sleep and lounge away more than half their time. The strongest inducement to labor, the right of property, is entirely unknown. Two thirds of the proceeds a native brings to market, unless by stealth, must be given to his chief, and often the whole is taken. Their birthright is slavery. Some of their houses or huts would make a miserable pigsty, and the inmates live like pigs, on a bed of dried grass filled with fleas and vermin. Many kanakas, in the Pacific Isles, pick these vermin from one another and eat them. The cutaneous disease known by the name of itch, prevails much among the common people, and not much effort is made to rid themselves of it. Frequent and hideous marks of a scourge clearly proclaim the curse of a God of purity. It annually consigns hundreds of the people to the tomb. It converts thousands, while living, into walking sepulchres. The majority are more or less disfigured by eruptions and sores, and many are as unsightly as lepers. While the lower class suffer their heads and clothes to harbor lice and unblushingly eat them, they are quite fastidious about eating in a dish where a fly has been drowned. The baking is performed in the following manner: A hole is made in the ground a foot or two deep, and five or six in circumference, placing a layer of stone on the bottom upon which light wood is piled and a fire kindled. Other stones are laid upon the fire. The wood is burned, and the top stones taken off. Kalo, fish, pig, or dog, wrapped in leaves of banana, is laid on the bottom stones and covered with the other heated ones. A little water is poured on the pile and the whole buried with earth. Have seen the same process at New Zealand. The inhabitants are cruel to the helpless and afflicted. The customary way to treat lunatics is to stone them to death. The helpless and dependent are cast away from the habitations of their relatives, to die unpitied. The most evident proof of a want of natural affection amongst these heathen is the crime of infanticide. In some districts where but little good mission influence has been exerted, two-thirds of the infants born, die by the hands of their own parents before attaining the first or second year of their age. This crime is sometimes provoked by the simple necessity of a half hour's additional labor per day for the support of the child until it can get its own living, and sometimes because its helplessness would interfere with the freedom or pleasure of the mother. The climate is peculiar for the latitude, raining but a few times during the year. The land is watered by conducting streams, which rush from the mountains, by artificial courses. The houses are generally not more than 8 or 10 feet long, 6 or 8 broad, and from 4 to 6 in hight, having one small hole for a door, the only opening for light or air. Many parts of the islands wear a forbidding and desolate aspect. In some parts the coasts are barren sand beaches, interrupted by heaps of black lava. They are, in fact, a vast heap of rocks in the mighty ocean, with here and there a luxuriant valley thronged with inhabitants. This was the character of the Sandwich Islands not many years ago. There is one lesson which we may learn from considering their character, that is, To avoid their indolence and excesses that we may not share in the inevitable woe which follows such vices as are practiced by them. JAMES SAWYER.