Canon Kingsley, in his charming book on the West Indies, says, "The
undoubted fact is known I find to few educated English people, that
the Coco palm, which produces coir rope, cocoanuts, and a hundred
other useful things, is not the same plant as the cacao bush which
produces chocolate, or anything like it. I am sorry to have to
insist upon this fact, but till Professor Huxley's dream and mine is
fulfilled, and our schools deign to teach, in the intervals of Greek
and Latin, some slight knowledge of this planet, and of those of its
productions which are most commonly in use, even this fact may need
to be re-stated more than once."
There is no room for the supposition that the intelligence of Mr.
Kingsley's "educated English" acquaintance is below the average, and
I should be sorry to form an unworthy estimate of that of my own
circle, though I have several times met with the foregoing
confusion, as well as the following and other equally ill-informed
questions, one or two of which I reluctantly admit that I might have
been guilty of myself before I visited the Pacific: "Whereabouts
are the Sandwich Islands? They are not the same as the Fijis, are
they? Are they the same as Otaheite? Are the natives all
cannibals? What sort of idols do they worship? Are they as pretty
as the other South Sea Islands? Does the king wear clothes? Who do
they belong to? Does any one live on them but the savages? Will
anything grow on them? Are the people very savage?" etc. Their
geographical position is a great difficulty. I saw a gentleman of
very extensive information looking for them on the map in the
neighbourhood of Tristran d'Acunha; and the publishers of a high-
class periodical lately advertised, "Letters from the Sandwich
Islands" as "Letters from the South Sea Islands." In consequence of
these and similar interrogatories, which are not altogether
unreasonable, considering the imperfect teaching of physical
geography, the extent of this planet, the multitude of its
productions, and the enormous number of islands composing Polynesia,
Micronesia, and Melanesia, it is necessary to preface the following
letters with as many preliminary statements as shall serve to make
them intelligible.
The Sandwich Islands do not form one of the South Sea groups, and
have no other connexion with them than certain affinities of race
and language. They constitute the only important group in the vast
North Pacific Ocean, in which they are so advantageously placed as
to be pretty nearly equidistant from California, Mexico, China, and
Japan. They are in the torrid zone, and extend from 18 degrees 50'
to 22 degrees 20' north latitude, and their longitude is from 154
degrees 53' to 160 degrees 15' west from Greenwich. They were
discovered by Captain Cook in 1778. They are twelve in number, but
only eight are inhabited, and these vary in size from Hawaii, which
is 4000 square miles in extent, and 88 miles long by 73 broad, to
Kahoolawe, which is only 11 miles long and 8 broad. Their entire
superficial area is about 6,100 miles. They are to some extent
bounded by barrier reefs of coral, and have few safe harbours.
Their formation is altogether volcanic, and they possess the largest
perpetually active volcano and the largest extinct crater in the
world. They are very mountainous, and two mountain summits on
Hawaii are nearly 14,000 feet in height. Their climate for
salubrity and general equability is reputed the finest on earth. It
is almost absolutely equable, and a man may take his choice between
broiling all the year round on the sea level on the leeward side of
the islands at a temperature of 80 degrees, and enjoying the charms
of a fireside at an altitude where there is frost every night of the
year. There is no sickly season, and there are no diseases of
locality. The trade winds blow for nine months of the year, and on
the windward coasts there is an abundance of rain, and a perennial
luxuriance of vegetation.
The Sandwich Islands are not the same as Otaheite nor as the Fijis,
from which they are distant about 4,000 miles, nor are their people
of the same race. The natives are not cannibals, and it is doubtful
if they ever were so. Their idols only exist in missionary museums.
They cast them away voluntarily in 1819, at the very time when
missionaries from America sent out to Christianize the group were on
their way round Cape Horn. The people are all clothed, and the
king, who is an educated gentleman, wears the European dress. The
official designation of the group is "Hawaiian Islands," and they
form an independent kingdom.
The natives are not savages, most decidedly not. They are on the
whole a quiet, courteous, orderly, harmless, Christian community.
The native population has declined from 400,000 as estimated by
Captain Cook in 1778 to 49,000, according to the census of 1872.
There are about 5,000 foreign residents, who live on very friendly
terms with the natives, and are mostly subjects of Kalakaua, the
king of the group.
The islands have a thoroughly civilized polity, and the Hawaiians
show a great aptitude for political organization. They constitute a
limited monarchy, and have a constitutional and hereditary king, a
parliament with an upper and lower house, a cabinet, a standing
army, a police force, a Supreme Court of Judicature, a most
efficient postal system, a Governor and Sheriff on each of the
larger islands, court officials, and court etiquette, a common
school system, custom houses, a civil list, taxes, a national debt,
and most of the other amenities and appliances of civilization.
There is no State Church. The majority of the foreigners, as well
as of the natives, are Congregationalists. The missionaries
translated the Bible and other books into Hawaiian, taught the
natives to read and write, gave the princes and nobles a high class
education, induced the king and chiefs to renounce their oppressive
feudal rights, with legal advice framed a constitution which became
the law of the land, and obtained the recognition of the little
Polynesian kingdom as a member of the brotherhood of civilized
nations.
With these few remarks I leave the subject of the volume to develop
itself in my letters. They have not had the advantage of revision
by any one familiar with the Sandwich Islands, and mistakes and
inaccuracies may consequently appear, on which, I hope that my
Hawaiian friends will not be very severe. In correcting them, I
have availed myself of the very valuable "History of the Hawaiian
Islands," by Mr. Jackson Jarves, Ellis' "Tour Round Hawaii," Mr.
Brigham's valuable monograph on "The Hawaiian Volcanoes," and sundry
reports presented to the legislature during its present session. I
have also to express my obligations to the Hon. E. Allen, Chief
Justice and Chancellor of the Hawaiian kingdom, Mr. Manley Hopkins,
author of "Hawaii," Dr. T. M. Coan, of New York, Professor W.
Alexander, Daniel Smith, Esq., and other friends at Honolulu, for
assistance most kindly rendered.
ISABELLA L. BIRD.