464 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



Kara is not grown upon the island and the drink made from the 

 kava-root, common throughout the South Sea, is not known to these 

 people. The diminution of the inhabitants can not be ascribed to the 

 introduction of intoxicating drinks, or indeed any of the factors usually 

 advanced in such cases. The decadence was no doubt accelerated by 

 the introduction of the small-pox, and by the deportation of large num- 

 bers, but it is earnestly hoped that the small remnant of the people will 

 increase and multiply under the comforts and protection acquired from 

 contact with civilization. 



BRUTAL TREATMENT OF NATIVES BY EARLY VOYAGERS. 



The brutal treatment that the islanders received from the hands of 

 their early visitors was not calculated to impress them favorably. 

 Usually the strangers were met upon their arrival by a crowd of noisy, 

 restless, impetuous people, as curious as children and as peaceable and 

 friendly with all their boisterousness. The greatest fault they com- 

 mitted was theft, and in return numbers were shot down and innocent 

 persons murdered. Roggeveen plainly states that his boats approached 

 the island well armed and in great fear of the natives. The men were 

 formed in line of battle as they disembarked, and before all werelanded, 

 some one in the rear fired a shot, and immediately a fusilade began by 

 these cowardly ruffians upon the unfortunate islanders, ten or twelve of 

 whom were killed outright and as many were wounded. The admiral 

 quietly shifts the responsibility for this outrage upon the shoulders of the 

 second mate of the Thienhovcn, who offers as an excuse that some of the 

 natives were observed to take up stones and make threatening gest- 

 ures. As soon as the astonishment and terror of the inhabitants had 

 subsided, they sued for mercy, and everything they possessed in the 

 way of fruits and vegetables, poultry, etc., was procured and laid as a 

 peace offering at the feet of the Dutchman. Captain Cook afterwards 

 received the most friendly reception possible from the same people, but 

 he observed their great dread of fire-arms, the deadly effects of which 

 were thorougly understood. The landing party conducted a brisk trade, 

 and were highly amused to witness the small thefts committed upon 

 one another in order to obtain articles for barter, yet Lieutenant Edge- 

 comb did not hesitate to immediately shoot with his musket a poor 

 unfortunate who picked up a little bag of botanical specimens. 



Captain Beechey was received with friendly demonstrations and his 

 boats, sent on shore for supplies, obtained bananas, yams, potatoes, su- 

 gar-cane, nets, etc., in trade, and some were thrown into the boats, leav- 

 ing the strangers to make what return they chose. His journal dwells 

 at great length upon the thieving propensity of the natives. His boats 

 were surrounded by native swimmers, who made off with small articles 

 that came within reach of them, and among them were women who 

 were not the actual plunderers, but who procured the opportunity for 

 others by engrossing the attention of the seameu, 



