Are We a Declining 



These people were very intelligent, as might 

 be inferred from their mode of life. Not only 

 were they satisfied with their own system, but 

 they could see the weakness of ours. According 

 to Dr. Seemann, one of them asked a white man 

 how many brothers and sisters he had ; the white 

 man frankly answered him, " ten." " But that 

 could not be," was the rejoinder, " one mother 

 could scarcely have so many children." When 

 old that these children were born at annual 

 intervals, and that such occurrences were common 

 in Europe, he was very much shocked, and 

 thought it explained sufficiently why so many 

 white men were " mere shrimps." 



Here is a lesson in philosophy from the 

 Cannibal Islands. It seems to me that the 

 tables should have been turned, and instead of 

 sending missionaries out there to convert natives 

 to our ideas, we should have sent men for the 

 purpose of learning something from them, or, at 

 the most, of making a friendly exchange of ideas. 



The Fijians were very much imposed upon at 

 that time, by the white settlers, and there were 

 several disputes as to ownership of land, etc. 

 On one occasion the Americans had been keeping 

 up the 4th of July, " Yankee Day," as it is 

 termed, the celebration being held at the house 

 of the American Consul. During the night a fire 

 broke out in some sheds that they used for drying 

 "beche de mer," and they accused the natives of 

 incendiarism. They held a court of inquiry and 

 fined the king a certain amount of money, getting 

 him to put his mark to a certain document. 

 Seeing that the Fijians possessed no money, this 



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