PROHIBITION OF INFANTICIDE. 331 
delightful transformation of character, that the 
lion and leopard shall become harmless as the 
lamb and the kid, “ and they shall neither hurt 
nor destroy.” 
In the Sandwich Islands, although not abo¬ 
lished, we have reason to believe it prevails less 
extensively now than it did four or five years ago. 
The king, and some of the chiefs, especially Karai- 
moku, since they have attended to the injunctions 
of Christianity, and have been made acquainted 
with the direct prohibitions of it in the Bible, have 
readily expressed in public their conviction of its 
criminality, and that committing it is in fact pe- 
dehi kanaka , (to kill man,) under circumstances 
which aggravate its guilt. They have also been 
led to see its impolicy with respect to their re¬ 
sources, in its tendency to depopulate the islands, 
and render them barren or unprofitable, and, from 
these views, have lately exerted themselves to 
suppress it. Karaimoku, regent of the islands, 
has more than once forbidden any parents to 
destroy their children, and has threatened to 
punish with banishment, if not with death, any 
who shall be found guilty of it. After we left 
Kairua, on our present tour, Kuakini, the gover¬ 
nor, published, among all the people under his 
jurisdiction, a strict prohibition of this barbarous 
custom. It is, however, only recently that the 
chiefs have endeavoured to prevent it, and the 
people do not very well brook their interference; 
so that, notwithstanding their efforts, it is still 
practised, particularly in remote districts, but in 
general privately, for fear of detection and punish¬ 
ment. 
The check, however, which infanticide has 
received from the humane and enlightened policy 
