254: 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



it is reassuring to find that some of the offenses 

 are not very heinous in their nature. In two 

 years there were no less than sixty-one convic- 

 tions for violating the Sabbath. 



The political hardships of the Hawaiians, in 

 fact, consist merely in being too much governed. 

 Life and property are secure ; the laws are just, 

 and are well administered ; the quantity, not the 

 quality, of the government is in fault. The po- 

 litical machinery, with king, Privy Council, gov- 

 ernors, judges, salaried ministers, and legislators, 

 is ludicrously in excess of the requirements of 

 the dwindling population — less than 60,000, in- 

 cluding all the foreigners. 



The military outlay, indeed, is not great, ex- 

 cept upon music and upon gunpowder for salutes. 

 The last item consumes a most undue proportion 

 of the national resources, as the principal foreign 

 powers are represented by commissioners as well 

 as by consuls, and the tariff of guns allotted to 

 each is two in excess of what is customary else- 

 where. Men-of-war of various nations, British 

 and American in particular, are constantly visit- 

 ing Honolulu ; and the islanders flatter them- 

 selves that the United Kingdom and the United 

 States are alike prepared to use any amount of 

 force or fraud in order to effect annexation. The 

 various commissioners, on their side, watch one 

 another with as much jealous distrust as do the 

 embassadors to the Sublime Porte ; each regards 

 the success of his policy as essential to the wel- 

 fare of his own country as well as that of Hawaii. 

 At present no pretext could easily be found for 

 foreign interference in the affairs of such a peace- 

 able and well-conducted state, and Hawaii may 

 hope for a season to enjoy the political inde- 

 pendence which she owes partly to her geograph- 

 ical isolation, planted as she is far from any 

 other land in the centre of the vast Pacific. 



But what will be the fate of the Sandwich 

 Islands when there are no more Hawaiians ? 

 Among foreign elements the American prepon- 

 derates, especially as regards commercial inter- 

 changes, and these islands naturally gravitate 

 toward the United States; but, oddly enough, 

 that great maritime nation appears to despise in- 

 sular possessions, even when, like St. Thomas, 

 they constitute important mercantile entrepots. 

 On the other hand, Great Britain, the universal 

 annexer of islands, has once already relinquished 

 possession of the Sandwich group, where the 

 French and the Russian colors have also been 

 hoisted, only to be again hauled down. It seems, 

 therefore, as if this little archipelago were des- 

 tined to remain uuannexed ; and, when the pres- 



ent royal race can no longer furnish it with a 

 king, it may imitate its American neighbors, and 

 proclaim the republic. 



A prosperous future is before it, situated in 

 mid-ocean betweeft America, Asia, and Australa- 

 sia, with a productive soil, and an equable cli- 

 mate which would be perfection did it not render 

 all exertion alike superfluous and distasteful. At 

 Honolulu, in 21° 18' north latitude, and 158° 

 west longitude, the barometer has been observed 

 to vary during the year only from 30.24 inches to 

 29.70, while the range of the thermometer at the 

 same time was between 86° and 62°, with a mean 

 temperature of 75°. This agreeable but enervat- 

 ing climate prevails only at the sea-level ; at a 

 greater elevation a temperate region is found, 

 and in the island of Hawaii the mountain-sum- 

 mits, rising to more than 13,000 feet, are 

 frequently capped with snow. The windward 

 coast of Hawaii, ever verdant and well watered, 

 thanks to the northeast trades, is admirably de- 

 scribed by the poet-laureate as the land of the 

 lotos-eaters : 



" A land of streams ! some, like a down-ward smoke, 

 Slow-dropping veils of thinnest lawn did go ; 



And some through wavering lights and shadows broke, 

 Rolling a sluimVrous sheet of foam below. 



.... Far off, three mountain-tops, 

 Three silent pinnacles of aged snow, 



Stood sunset-flushed : and, dewed with showery drops, 



Up-clombthe shadowy palm above the woven copse." 



There is nothing melancholy about these mild- 

 eyed lotos-eaters, except the knowledge that they 

 will have no share in the future prosperity which 

 white capital and Chinese labor seem likely to 

 produce in the Sandwich Islands. During the 

 last quarter of a century, while these " happy 

 isles " have enjoyed such political as well as nat- 

 ural advantages that the population oupht to 

 have doubled itself, it has diminished by nearly 

 one-third. The Hawaiians have proved in a most 

 remarkable instance their appreciation of a sani- 

 tary policy, which places the welfare of the com- 

 munity above the prejudices and even the affec- 

 tions of the individual. A considerable and ap- 

 parently-increasing proportion of the Hawaiians 

 is afflicted with the terrible disease known as 

 leprosy, which has defied all available medical 

 science, and is regarded as absolutely incurable 

 How far it is contagious in the ordinary sense ap- 

 pears to be doubtful, for the natives have habitu- 

 ally neglected all precautions in associating with 

 lepers, and yet the disease is not known to have 

 affected above two per cent, of the population. On 

 the other hand, it is clearly liable to be transmitted 

 from parent to offspring, and is regarded as in- 



