62 KAUAI AND OAHU. 



it has apparently been formed by volcanic action. At its entrance it is 

 about half a mile wide, and decreases in width as it approaches the 

 mountains. At its head is a beautiful waterfall, of which Mr. Agate 

 succeeded in getting a correct drawing. 



The basaltic rocks and strata, as it will be seen, have been much 

 reversed and upturned, and present their columnar structure very dis- 

 tinctly to view, inclining in opposite directions. Although the volume 

 of water in this cascade is not great, yet its form and situation add 

 very much to its beauty: it falls into a quiet basin beneath, and the 

 spray being driven by the wind upon each bank, affords nourishment 

 to a variety of ferns which grow there. At its foot it forms a small 

 river, which passes down through the centre of the valley. This 

 whole scene is very striking, the banks forming a kind of amphitheatre 

 rich in foliage, and with rills of water coursing down them in every 

 direction. 



The water of this stream is used by the natives to irrigate their taro- 

 patches, and the soil of the valley is exceedingly fertile, producing 

 sweet-potatoes, pumpkins, cabbages, beans, &c. The whole district is 

 almost entirely supplied with food from the Hanapepe and Waimea 

 valleys, which occasions the population for the most part to centre in 

 these two places : throughout the remainder of the island, the huts and 

 inhabitants are but sparsely scattered. 



The district of Hanapepe forms a mission station, and is under the 

 care of the Rev. Samuel Whitney. He states the population in 1838 

 to have been 3272. Mr. Whitney informed me, that for some years 

 past he has kept a register of births and deaths, which shows that the 

 latter is to the former as three to one. Other late authorities make the 

 decrease in this district as eight to one for several years; but a resident 

 of such standing as Mr. Whitney must be reckoned the best authority. 



Mr. Whitney imputes this rapid decrease to former vicious habits, 

 and both native and foreign authorities attribute the introduction of the 

 venereal to the visit of Cook. This infection, brought to these islands 

 by the first voyagers, may now be said to pervade the whole popula- 

 tion, and has reduced the natives to a morbid sickly state; many of the 

 women are incapable of child-bearing, and of the children who are born 

 only a few live to come to maturity. 



Mr. Whitney assigns as another cause of the decrease in the popu- 

 lation, the recklessness of human life, brought about by the despotic 

 government under which they have been living, which has destroyed 

 all motives to enterprise and industry, rendered precarious the blessings 

 of life, and produced a corresponding recklessness as to the future. 

 Much of the sickness is owing to over-eating and irregularity in meals: 



