In 1865, the Hawaiian Legislature, recognizing the disastrous fact
that leprosy is at once contagious and incurable, passed an act to
prevent its spread, and eventually the Board of Health established a
leper settlement on the island of Molokai for the isolation of
lepers. In carrying out the painful task of weeding out and exiling
the sufferers, the officials employed met with unusual difficulties;
and the general foreign community was not itself aware of the
importance of making an attempt to "stamp out" the disease, until
the beginning of Lunalilo's reign, when the apparently rapid spread
of leprosy, and sundry rumours that others than natives were
affected by it, excited general alarm, and not unreasonably, for
medical science, after protracted investigation, knows less of
leprosy than of cholera. Nor are medical men wholly agreed as to
the manner in which infection is communicated; and, as the white
residents on the islands associate very freely and intimately with
the natives, eating poi out of their calabashes, and sleeping in
their houses and on their mats, there was just cause for uneasiness.
The natives themselves have been, and still are, perfectly reckless
about the risk of contagion, and although the family instinct among
them is singularly weak, the gregarious or social instinct is
singularly strong, and it has been found impossible to induce them
to give up smoking the pipes, wearing the clothes, and sleeping on
the mats of lepers, which three things are universally regarded by
medical men as undoubted sources of infection. At the beginning of
1873, it was estimated that nearly 400 lepers were scattered up and
down the islands, living among their families and friends, and the
healthy associated with them in complete apathy or fatalism.
However bloated the face and glazed the eyes, or however swollen or
decayed the limbs were, the persons so afflicted appeared neither to
scare nor disgust their friends, and, therefore, Hawaii has
absolutely needed the coercive segregation of these living foci of
disease. When the search for lepers was made, the natives hid their
friends away under mats, and in forests and caves, till the peril of
separation was over, and if they sought medical advice, they
rejected foreign educated aid in favour of the highly paid services
of Chinese and native quacks, who professed to work a cure by means
of loathsome ointments and decoctions, and abominable broths worthy
of the witches' cauldron.
However, as the year passed on, lepers were "informed against," and
it became the painful duty of the sheriffs of the islands, on the
statement of a doctor that any individual was truly a leper, to
commit him for life to Molokai. Some, whose swollen faces and
glassy goggle eyes left no room for hope of escape, gave themselves
up; and few, who, like Mr. Ragsdale, might have remained among their
fellows almost without suspicion, surrendered themselves in a way
which reflects much credit upon them. Mr. Park, the Marshal, and
Mr. Wilder, of the Board of Health, went round the islands
repeatedly in the Kilauea, and performed the painful duty of
collecting the victims, with true sympathy and kindness. The woe of
those who were taken, the dismal wailings of those who were left,
and the agonised partings, when friends and relatives clung to the
swollen limbs and kissed the glistering bloated faces of those who
were exiled from them for ever, I shall never forget.
There were no individual distinctions made among the sufferers.
Queen Emma's cousin, a man of property, and Mr. Ragsdale, the most
influential lawyer among the half-whites, shared the same doom as
poor Upa, the volcano guide, and stricken Chinamen and labourers
from the plantations. Before the search slackened, between three
and four hundred men, women, and children were gathered out from
among their families, and placed on Molokai.
Between 1866 and April 1874, eleven hundred and forty-five lepers,
five hundred and sixty of whom were sent from Kahili in the spring
of 1872, have arrived on Molokai, of which number four hundred and
forty-two have died, the majority of the deaths having occurred
since the beginning of Lunalilo's reign, when the work of
segregation was undertaken in earnest. At the present time the
number on the island is 703, including 22 children. These
unfortunates are necessarily pauperised, and the small Hawaiian
kingdom finds itself much burdened by their support. The strain on
the national resources is very great, and it is not surprising that
officials called upon to meet such a sad emergency should be
assailed in all quarters of the globe by sentimental criticism and
misstatements regarding the provision made for the lepers on
Molokai. Most of these are unfounded, and the members of the Board
of Health deserve great credit both for their humanity and for their
prompt and careful attention to the complaints made by the
sufferers.
At present the two obvious blots on the system are, the insufficient
house accommodation, involving a herding together which is repulsive
to foreign, though not to native, ideas; and the absence of a
resident physician to prescribe for the ailments from which leprosy
is no exemption. Molokai, the island of exile, is Molokai aina
pali, "the land of precipices," in the old native meles, and its
walls of rock rise perpendicularly from the sea to a height varying
from 1000 to 2500 feet, in extreme grandeur and picturesqueness, and
are slashed, as on Hawaii, by gulches opening out on natural lawns
on the sea level. The place chosen for the centralization and
segregation of leprosy is a most singular plain of about 20,000
acres, hemmed in between the sea and a precipice 2000 feet high,
passable only where a zigzag bridle track swings over its face, so
narrow and difficult that it has been found impossible to get cattle
down over it, so that the leper settlement below has depended for
its supplies of fresh meat upon vessels. The settlement is
accessible also by a very difficult landing at Kalaupapa on the
windward side of Molokai.
Three miles inland from Kalaupapa is the leper village of Kalawao,
which may safely be pronounced one of the most horrible spots on all
the earth; a home of hideous disease and slow coming death, with
which science in despair has ceased to grapple; a community of
doomed beings, socially dead, "whose only business is to perish;"
wifeless husbands, husbandless wives, children without parents, and
parents without children; men and women who have "no more a portion
for ever in anything that is done under the sun," condemned to watch
the repulsive steps by which each of their doomed fellows passes
down to a loathsome death, knowing that by the same they too must
pass.
A small stone church near the landing, and another at Kalawao, tell
of the extraordinary devotion of a Catholic priest, who, with every
prospect of advancement in his Church, and with youth, culture, and
refinement to hold him back from the sacrifice, is in this hideous
valley, a self exiled man, for Christ's sake. It was singular to
hear the burst of spontaneous admiration which his act elicited. No
unworthy motives were suggested, all envious speech was hushed; it
was almost forgotten by the most rigid Protestants that Father
Damiens, who has literally followed the example of Christ by "laying
down his life for the brethren," is a Romish priest, and an
intuition, higher than all reasoning, hastened to number him with
"the noble army of martyrs."
In Kalawao are placed not only the greater number of the lepers, but
the hospital buildings. Most of the victims are of the poorer
classes and live in brown huts; but two of rank, Mrs. Napela and the
Hon. P. Y. Kaeo, Queen Emma's cousin, have neat wooden cottages on
the way from the landing, with every comfort which their means can
provide for them. The hospital buildings are about twelve in
number, well and airily situated on a height; they are built of wood
thoroughly whitewashed, and are enclosed by a fence. Although it is
hoped that a leper hospital is not to be a permanent institution of
the kingdom, the soft green grass of the enclosure has been
liberally planted with algaroba trees, which in a year or two will
form a goodly shade, and water has been brought in from a distance
at considerable expense, so that an abundant supply is always at
hand. The lepers are dying fast, and the number of advanced cases
in the hospital averages forty. In the centre of the hospital
square there are the office buildings, including the dispensary,
which is well supplied with medicines, so that in the absence of a
doctor, common ailments may be treated by an intelligent English
leper. The superintendent's office, where the accounts and
statistics of the settlement are kept, and where the leper governor
holds his leper court, and the post-office, are also within the
enclosure; but the true governor and law-giver is Death.
When Mr. Ragsdale left Hilo as a leper, the course he was likely to
take on Molokai could not be accurately forecasted; and it was felt
that the presence in the leper community of a man of his gift of
eloquence and influence might either be an invaluable assistance to
the government, or else a serious embarrassment. In every position
he had hitherto occupied, he had acquired and retained a remarkable
notoriety; and no stranger could visit the islands without hearing
of poor "Bill Ragsdale's" gifts, and the grievous failings by which
they were accompanied.
Hitherto the hopes of his well wishers have been fulfilled, and the
government has found in him a most energetic as well as prudent
agent. "It is better to be first in Britain than second in Rome;"
and probably this unfortunate man, superintendent of the leper
settlement, and popularly known as "Governor Ragsdale," has found a
nobler scope for his ambition among his doomed brethren than in any
previous position. His remarkable power of influencing his
countrymen is at present used for their well being; and though his
authority is practically almost absolute, owing to the isolation of
the community, and its position almost outside the operation of law,
he has hitherto used it with good faith and moderation. He is
nominally assisted in his duties by a committee of twenty chosen
from among the lepers themselves; but from his superior education
and native mental ascendancy, all immediate matters in the
settlement are decided by his judgment alone.
The rations of food are ample and of good quality, and
notwithstanding the increase in the number of lepers, and the
difficulty of communication, there has not been any authenticated
case of want. Each leper receives weekly 21 lbs. of paiai, and from
5 to 6 of beef, and when these fail to be landed, 9 lbs. of rice, 1
lb. of sugar, and 4 lbs. of salmon. Soap and clothing are also
supplied; but, for all beyond these necessaries, the lepers are
dependent on their own industry, if they are able to exercise it,
and the kindness of their friends. Coffee, tobacco, pipes, extra
clothing, knives, toys, books, pictures, working implements and
materials, have all been possessed by them in happier days; and
though packages of such things have been sent by the charitable for
distribution by Father Damiens, it is not possible for island
benevolence fully to meet an emergency and needs so disproportionate
to the population and resources of the kingdom. Besides the two
Catholic churches, there are a Protestant chapel, with a pastor,
himself a leper, who is a regularly ordained minister of the
Hawaiian Board, and two school-houses, where the twenty-two children
of the settlement receive instruction in Hawaiian from a leper
teacher. There is a store, too, where those who are assisted by
their friends can purchase small luxuries, which are sold at just
such an advance on cost as is sufficient to clear the expense of
freight. The taste for ornament has not died out in either sex, and
women are to be seen in Kalawao, hideous and bloated beyond
description, decorated with leis of flowers, and looking for
admiration out of their glazed and goggle eyes.
King Kalakaua and Queen Kapiolani have paid a visit to the
settlement, and were received with hearty alohas, and the music of a
leper band. The king made a short address to the lepers, the
substance of which was "that his heart was grieved with the
necessity which had separated these, his subjects, from their homes
and families, a necessity which they themselves recognised and
acquiesced in, and it should be the earnest desire of himself and
his government to render their condition in exile as comfortable as
possible." While he spoke, though it is supposed that a merciful
apathy attends upon leprosy, his hideous audience showed signs of
deep feeling, and many shed tears at his thoughtfulness in coming to
visit those, who, to use their own touching expression, were
"already in the grave."
The account which follows is from the pen of a gentleman who
accompanied the king, and visited the hospital on the same occasion,
in company with two members of the Board of Health.
"As our party stepped on shore, we found the lepers assembled to the
number of two or three hundred--there are 697 all told in the
settlement--for they had heard in advance of our coming, and our
ears were greeted with the sound of lively music. This proceeded
from the 'band,' consisting of a drum, a fife, and two flutes,
rather skilfully played upon by four young lads, whose visages were
horribly marked and disfigured with leprosy. The sprightly airs
with which these poor creatures welcomed the arrival of the party,
sounded strangely incongruous and out of place, and grated harshly
upon our feelings. And then as we proceeded up the beach, and the
crowd gathered about us, eager and anxious for a recognition or a
kind word of greeting--oh, the repulsive and sickening libels and
distorted caricatures of the human face divine upon which we looked!
And as they evidently read the ill-concealed aversion in our
countenances, they withdrew the half-proffered hand, and slunk back
with hanging heads. They felt again that they were lepers, the
outcasts of society, and must not contaminate us with their touch.
A few cheerful words of inquiry from the physician, Dr. Trousseau,
addressed to individuals as to their particular cases, broke the
embarrassment of this first meeting, and soon the crowd were
chatting and laughing just like any other crowd of thoughtless
Hawaiians, and with but few exceptions, these unfortunate exiles
showed no signs of the settled melancholy that would naturally be
looked for from people so hopelessly situated. Very happy were they
when spoken to, and quite ready to answer any questions. We saw
numbers whom we had known in years past, and who, having
disappeared, we had thought dead. One we had known as a
Representative, and a very intelligent one, too, in the Legislature
of 1868. On greeting him as an old-time acquaintance, he observed,
'Yes, we meet again--in this living grave!' He is a man of no
little consideration among the people, being entrusted by the Board
of Health with the care of the store which is kept here for the sale
of such goods as the people require. All do not appear to be lepers
who are leprous. We saw numbers who might pass along our streets
any day without being suspected of the taint. They had it, however,
in one way or another. Sometimes on the extremities only, eating
away the flesh and rotting the bones of the hands or feet; and
sometimes only appearing in black and indurated spots on the skin,
noticed only on a somewhat close examination. This last sort is
said to be the worst, as being most surely fatal and easiest
transmitted. We saw women who had the disease in this stage,
walking about, whom it was difficult to believe were lepers.
"If our sensibilities were shocked at the sight of the crowd of
lepers we had met at the beach, walking about in physical strength
and activity, how shall we describe our sensations in looking upon
these loathsome creatures in the hospital, in whom it was indeed
hard to recognise anything human? The rooms were cleanly kept and
well ventilated, but the atmosphere within was pervaded with the
sickening odour of the grave. At each end, squatted or lying prone
on their respective mats or mattresses, were the yet breathing
corpses of lepers in the last stages of various forms of the
disease, who glanced inquisitively at us for a moment out of their
ghoul-like eyes--those who were not already beyond seeing--and then
withdrew within their dreadful selves. Was there ever a more
pitiful sight?
"In one room we saw a sight that will ever remain fixed indelibly on
the tablets of memory. A little blue-eyed, flaxen haired child,
apparently three or four years old, a half-caste, that looked up at
us with an expression of timorous longing to be caressed and loved;
but alas, in its glassy eyes and transparent cheeks were the
unmistakable signs of the curse--the sin of the parents visited upon
the child!
"In another room was one--a mass of rotting flesh, with but little
semblance of humanity remaining--who was dying, and whose breath
came hurried and obstructed. A few hours at most, and his troubles
would be over, and his happy release arrive. There had been
fourteen deaths in the settlement during the previous fortnight. On
the day of our visit there were fifty-eight inmates of the
hospital."
Though the lifting of the veil of mystery which hangs over the death
valley of Molokai discloses some of the most woeful features of the
curse, it is a relief to know the worst, and that the poor leprous
outcasts in their "living grave" are not outside the pale of
humanity and a judicious philanthropy. All that can be done for
them is to encourage their remaining capacities for industry, and to
smooth, as far as is possible, the journey of death. The Hawaiian
Government is doing its best to "stamp out" the disease, and to
provide for the comfort of those who are isolated; and, with the
limited means at its disposal, has acted with an efficiency and
humanity worthy of the foremost of civilised countries.