Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



did not so much perceive, for it seemed blended in the 

 general love ; and where all were treated as brothers and 

 sisters, it was hard to tell who were actually related to each 

 other by blood. 



" Let it not be supposed that I have overdrawn this 

 picture. I have not done so. Nor let it be urged that 

 the hostility of this tribe to foreigners, and the hereditary 

 feuds they carry on against their fellow-islanders beyond 

 the mountains, are facts which contradict me. Not so : 

 these apparent discrepancies are easily reconciled. By 

 many a legendary tale of violence and wrong, as well as 

 by events which have passed before their eyes, these people 

 have been taught to look upon white men with abhorrence. 

 The cruel invasion of their country by Porter has alone 

 furnished them with ample provocation ; and I can sympa- 

 thize in the spirit which prompts the Typee v/arrior to 

 guard all the passes to his valley with the point of his levelled 

 spear, and, standing upon the beach, with his back turned 

 upon his green home, to hold at bay the intruding European." 



Influences of " Civilisation " 



From R. L. Stevenson's In the South Seas^ p. 43. (Chatto 

 and Windus, 1908.) 



[It is asked] " Was not the Polynesian always unchaste ? 

 Doubtless he was so always : doubtless he is more so since 

 the coming of his remarkably chaste visitors from Europe. 

 Take the Hawaiian account of Cook : I have no doubt 

 it is entirely fair. Take Krusenstern's candid, almost 

 innocent description of a Russian man-of-war at the 

 Marquesas ; consider the disgraceful history of missions 

 in Hawaii itself . . . add the practice of whaling fleets 

 to call at the Marquesas and carry off a complement of 



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