CAUSES OF MORTALITY. 223 fish, or dig, or beg. They are generally to be found either quite full or quite empty; and a poor Hawaiian's hunger has often to be stayed upon moss and roots, and muscles or snails. The curse of the whole nation, perhaps after all the greatest reason for its wasting away so fast, is found in this indolence, indulged, probably, more now than when the nation was a nation of savages, and the people had to work more for the chiefs, and the women were more occupied than now in making kapa. So much for Hawaiian poverty. As to mortality from disease, Dr. Andrews, of Kailua, made an effort, a few years ago, to ascertain what proportion of children survive the period of infancy. The result was to show that more than one half die under two years of age, and a very considerable proportion of these at a period of from six to twelve months; while the deaths among children of the mission, of all ages, do not exceed one seventh of the whole. To those acquainted with the habits of Sandwich Islanders the cause of so many early deaths is plain. It is to be found in insufficient clothing, or, as is often the case, in an entire destitution of covering, in improper food, and want of cleanliness. It is the practice of natives to feed their children at a very early age, and often from birth, with poi, raw fish, seaeggs, sea-weed, and whatever else they themselves eat. The consequence is indigestion, dropsy, diarrhea, and other complaints. Disease having supervened, no alteration is made in the diet, but a mistaken kindness indulges the sufferer in every thing his appetite craves, until death closes the scene. With such treatment the wonder is, not that so many perish, but that any survive. As to disease among adults, with the exception of malignant fevers, I do not see but that its forms are as common and various as any where. The representations we had heard made in America would make us believe that there were no diseases out here indigenous, but only those consequent upon licentiousness, and that a prudent man need hardly die here at all, except of old age. Too much, it is true, can not be said in praise of the climate of certain localities of this favored group. But how wide representations like those referred to are from the truth, a catalogue of native names for maladies and pains would alone show. They are too numerous and specific to detail here. It is enough to say, that wherever sin is found, and especially in a rude country as Hawaii nei, where the remedy of the Gospel is not applied until long after the inoculation of the native stock with foreign vice and virus, there are found disease and death in all their Protean forms, more numerous than "the monstrous crew" which Michael in vision showed to Adam, Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture, Dropsies, and asthmas, and joint-racking rheums. A HINT TO THE LIBERAL. 225 The three last of this list, together with palsies, partial madness, dysentery, and disorders of digestion, are especially common. Many die of induced phthisis, and consumption of the lungs is frequently the termination of long ailments. But hereditary or tu. bercular phthisis is, it is believed, never or rarely known. A missionary kauka (doctor), among Hawaiians, is generally a very popular man, and has it in his power to do much good. But one can have little pleasure or consolation in merely administering medicine, while their exposures are such, and their habits of living so at variance with the laws of health, and there is such an utter want of knowledge and means to nurse the sick. The missionary families do in this line, perhaps, all they can; but that, with other work pressing, is necessarily very little. There ought to be a hospital on every island, in which natives might be supplied with the means, and taught how to take care of the sick. Any benevolent man in New York or Boston, who is amassing his thousands, could make no better investment of some of them than in founding hospitals for the native race at these islands. The blessing of the poor, and of many ready to perish, would come upon him, and he would cause the widow's heart to sing for joy. Such a boon is naturally to be expected from the United States, on the principle that the man who has once greatly befriended us will be most likely to do so, if need be, again. To America, under God, the Hawaiian nation owes the Gospel. Would that they could, in like manner, be indebted to her benevolence for their temporal sal vation and perpetuity as a race! Will not some generous Man of Ross that reads these pages take the hint? Let Carlos Wilcox, though dead, yet speaking at these ends of the earth-let the Cowper of New England instruct us as to the blessedness of such an investment, and urge its philanthropic realization upon some unknown reader with whom God may have in. trusted the means, and whose heart shall be "finely touched," like a Howard's or Lyman's, to this "fine issue." ROUSE to this work of high and holy love, And thou an angel's happiness shalt know- And yield thee fruits divine in heaven's immortal bowers. HAWAIIAN PIC-NIC. 227 CHAPTER XI. A BARBECUE WITH THE NATIVES, CORAL-HUNTING, AND MEMORIALS OF KAPIOLANI. Down in the depths of the lonely sea I work at my mystic masonry; Ages behold my ceaseless toil, When the sea is calm or the waters boil; The mason of God in the boundless sea. Anon. I HAVE been out recently with native divers, hunting for coral, and on an excursion with the missionary families to Kealia, the diocese of Mr. Ives. Our early departure in canoes by torch-light, hearty greetings by naked barbarians on shore, landings in the surf, exploration of a lava-dripping stalactite cave, and pitching in native tents, would have a pleasing dash of the romantic, were it not for the sundry inconveniences of getting wet and dirty, flea-bitten, and robbed of rest; all which, and other nameless items of discomfort, do considerably abate the edge of a man's relish for such excursions, after he has once had a little of a missionary's experience in that line. However, meetings with the natives were pleasant, |