98 



HAWAII AND O A H U. 



this is not a sufficient stimulus to induce exertions on the part of the 

 natives to cultivate the soil, or to produce industrious habits. 



The only staple commodities are sweet-potatoes, upland taro, and 

 yams. The latter are almost entirely raised for ships. Sugar-cane, 

 bananas, pine-apples, bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, and melons, are also cul- 

 tivated. The Irish potato, Indian corn, beans, coffee, cotton, figs, 

 oranges, guavas, and grapes, have been introduced, and might be 

 successfully cultivated, if there was any demand for them. 



The climate is mild throughout the district. The thermometer 

 ranges between 62° and 76° in the winter, and from 70° to 86° in the 

 summer, and seldom above 86° or below 62° ; this, it will be remem- 

 bered, is on the lee side of the island. They seldom have strong 

 winds ; and in the day they enjoy a cool sea-breeze, which alternates 

 with the land-breeze at night. 



From May to September is the wet or rainy season, when they 

 experience a good deal of rain ; and this is also the growing season. 



In December, January, and February, they have usually very dry 

 weather, and the winds prevail from the nortli, from which quarter it 

 sometimes blows fresh. 



The natives are better off here than could have been expected, and 

 some of their houses are large and airy. The chiefs set a good 

 example in this respect. Kapiolani, one of the chief women, has a very 

 comfortable two-story stone dweUing. They have also built a stone 

 church, one hundred and twenty-five feet long by sixty feet wide. 



Good paths for horses have been made throughout the district, with 

 much labour. An evident improvement has taken place in the habits 

 of the females, who have been taught the use of the needle, and other 

 womanly employments. Kapiolani has been very assiduous in intro- 

 ducing improvements, and she has caused to be erected a sugar-mill, 

 to introduce the manufacture of sugar, and make it an object for the 

 people to raise the cane. 



The inhabitants of this district are nine thousand. The marriages 

 are about one hundred yearly. The population is thought to be de- 

 creasinty, but this is assuming^ as correct the former census, which I 

 have before said is not to be relied on. The grounds on which this 

 decrease has been supposed to exist were, that it was found that of 

 fifty-sis mothers, taking old and young promiscuously, were born 

 two hundred and sixty-seven children, of whom one hundred and 

 twenty-nine are living, one hundred and twenty-five died very young, 



