228 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



bloodless war, amounted to more tlian six hundred thousand per- 

 sons." * 



All these races, except the Huns, were of Teutonic or kindred 

 lineage. What we wish particularly to call attention to is, that while 

 they, powerful in numbers, vigorous in body, and indomitable in spirit, 

 under the influence of the old civilization of the South speedily be- 

 came extinct as races, and, except in the single case of the Visigoths, 

 even left no visible impress of themselves upon a subsequent people, 

 while, in fact, they dropped out of existence ; yet, on the other hand, 

 similar nations, coming also from Northern Europe, of the Teutonic 

 family, driven by the same impulse for adventure and conquest, but 

 going instead among the barbarous Britons, with whom they were 

 amalgamated, became, by a slow, a natural process of evolution, the 

 foremost nation of the globe. 



These instances from antiquity are sufficiently striking. But it is 

 in modern times only that we can really study to advantage the effect 

 of a sudden civilization upon barbarians. In the cases thus far con- 

 sidered we can judge of effects only when they are extreme, as leading 

 to the extinction of a race. There is no means of estimating those 

 lesser changes which are best measured by the aid of the census. Nor 

 is it possible at this distance of time to appreciate fully those different 

 elements of deterioration which can be observed in contemporary races. 

 Hence we pass to some of the more recent illustrations of the point 

 under discussion. 



The present century has witnessed in the Sandwich Islands what is 

 probably the most remarkable instance of civilization in the history of 

 the world. A little more than one hundred years ago Captain Cook 

 was killed by the natives, who, though not cannibals, were as degraded 

 as any tribe on the face of the earth. The story of this people is too 

 familiar to need repetition. The first missionary visited the islands in 

 1820. In 1853, just one generation later, the American Board of For- 

 eign Missions declared that the people were Christianized, and with- 

 drew its support from the churches. Since, that time they have not 

 only maintained themselves, but are supporting missionaries in Polyne- 

 sia. The formation of a constitutional government, the negotiation of 

 treaties, the development of a system of education, the grateful and 

 graceful contributions made in aid of the United States Government dur- 

 ing our late civil war, all have happened within the memory of middle- 

 aged men. Mr. Charles Nordhoff, who is certainly not prejudiced in 

 favor of the missionaries, says f that they " have eradicated the grosser 

 crimes of murder and theft so completely that . . . people leave their 

 houses open all day and unlocked all night, without thought of theft ; 

 and there is not a country in the world where the stranger may travel 

 in such absolute safety as in these islands. In 1880 there were two 



* Loc. cit., chapter xli. 



f " Northera California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Islands," p. 24, 



