THE RACES OF MAN. 213 



are rewarded by gifts of land and other encouragements." 

 This unparalleled enactment by the government well shows 

 how infertile the race had become. The Rev. A. Bishop 

 stated in the Hawaiian *^ Spectator " in 1839, that a large 

 proportion of the children die at early ages, and Bishop 

 Staley informs me that this is still the case, just as in New 

 Zealand. This has been attributed to the neglect of the 

 children by the women, but it is probably in large part due 

 to innate weakness of constitution in the children, in rela- 

 tion to the lessened fertility of their parents. There is, 

 moreover, a furtlfer^esemblance to the case of Xew Zeal- 

 and, in the fact that there is a large excess of male over 

 female births; the census of 1872 gives 31,650 males to 

 25,247 females of all ages, that is 125.36 males for every 

 100 females; whereas in all civilized countries the females 

 exceed the males. Xo doubt the profligacy of the women 

 may in part account for their small fertility; but their 

 changed habits of life is a much more probable cause, and 

 which will at the same time account for the increased mor- 

 tality, especially of the children. The islands were visited 

 by Cook in 1779, by Vancouver in 1794, and often subse- 

 quently by whalers. In 1819 missionaries arrived, and 

 found that idolatry had been already abolished, and other 

 changes effected by the king. After this period there was 

 a rapid change in almost all the habits of life of the natives, 

 and they soon became ^*the most civilized of the Pacific 

 Islanders." One of my informants, Mr. Coan, who was 

 born on the islands, remarks that the natives have under- 

 gone a greater change in their habits of life in the course 

 of fift}' years than Englishmen during a thousand years. 

 From information received from Bishop Staley, it does 

 not appear that the poorer classes have ever much changed 

 their diet, although many new kinds of fruit have been 

 introduced, and the sugar-cane is in universal use. Owing 

 however, to their passion for imitating Europeans, they 

 altered their manner of dressing at an early period, and 

 the use of alcoholic drinks became very general. Although 

 these changes appear inconsiderable, I can well believe, 

 from what is known with respect to animals, that they 

 might suffice to lessen the fertility of the natives.* 



* The foregoing statements are taken chiefly from the following 

 works: " Jarves' History of the Hawaiian Islands," 1843, pp. 400- 

 407. Cheever, "Life in the tSandwich Islands," 1851, p. 277. 



