KAUAI AND OAHU. 73 



cause can have but little influence. This is true also as regards in- 

 temperance, for he bears testimony to his having never seen a native 

 intoxicated on Kauai. The touching of a French whale-ship at 

 Waimea and landing a quantity of wine and brandy, has, he thinks, re- 

 vived their propensities of fifteen or twenty years past ; and when the 

 liquors were exhausted, they were found resorting to a method of 

 distillation of their own, or subjecting various fruits to the process of 

 fermentation until they would produce intoxicating effects. All this 

 has been promptly arrested by the activity of the judges and their 

 agents. 



In this district comparatively few die of acute diseases. Dropsies 

 are among the most frequent; palsies and diseases of the lungs also 

 occur ; syphilis is rare, but gonorrhoea prevails extensively. 



The climate is considered very salubrious. Immoderate eating and 

 fasting, living in damp huts, long exposure in the water, and sleeping 

 on the ground, are all assigned as causes for the many sick and weak 

 among the natives. 



The schools in this district have, as elsewhere, undergone an entire 

 revolution. Formerly, all the adult population were included among 

 the pupils ; now they consist only of children, and within two years 

 past these have greatly fallen off in numbers — as much indeed as one 

 half. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, with some native teachers, have charge 

 of the school. Mr. Alexander thinks, that the native children are not 

 inferior to those of other lands in point of intellect. These schools, 

 unlike those of Tahiti, are kept open five days in the week, and six 

 hours each day. Besides the school at Wailua, there are several others 

 at different places. The teachers are relieved from all government 

 taxation, except the poll-tax, and receive whatever the congrega- 

 tion contribute at the monthly meetings, which Mr. Alexander com- 

 putes at about forty dollars for the last seven months ; this sum di- 

 vided among eight teachers, does not give each of them one dollar a 

 month ! 



The church was established at this station in 1834, by five persons 

 from the church at Waimea, and five others ; these received an exami- 

 nation. The church now consists of eighty members. Three persons 

 have been excommunicated, and four have died. The congregation on 

 the Sabbath amounts to from six to eight hundred. 



Large quantities of beans were raised on this island, in hopes of 

 supplying the whalers with them ; but, after they had been raised and 

 carried to Oahu, they discovered that those ships did not use them. 

 This is one instance, among many, of the want of practical knowledge 

 on these islands. 



vol. iv. g 10 



