330 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
annexing the punishment of death to its perpetration 
under any circumstances whatever. 
In the Sandwich Islands, although not abolished, 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 Karaimoku, since they 
have attended to the precepts 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 pepehi kanaka , (to kill man,) under circum¬ 
stances 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 governor, 
published among all the people under his jurisdiction, 
a strict prohibition of this barbarous custom. It is, 
however, only recently that the chiefs have endeavour¬ 
ed 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 punishment. 
The check, however, which infanticide has received 
from the humane and enlightened policy of the chiefs, 
is encouraging. It warrants the most sanguine expec¬ 
tations, that as Christianity advances among the Ha¬ 
waii an s, this, and other customs equally degrading to 
