Page:The Overland Monthly, volume 1, issue 1.djvu/65



servitude, "no hope enlightened their souls for the future."

The story of the Hawaiian people down to the early part of the present century is told from tradition, from conjecture, invention of priests, and from the historical sze/és, (songs) which are said to narrate the genealogy of seventyfour kings, from the last of whom descended Kamehameha I, the first and greatest ruler of whom we have any true account, and from whose time history began to gather up and preserve the facts of interest to that nation. In their traditions we recognize the story of a great deluge; of how the island of Hawaii was produced from the bursting of a large egg as it was deposited on the water by a bird of immense size; of the god Mauz, who held the sun in his course one day, so that his wife might finish her work before dark; and of Wazola-loa, "the water of enduring life," by bathing in which the aged, ugly and diseased were restored to youth, strength and beauty.

The islands were first found by Spanish voyagers in 1542, but the knowledge gained thus was not availed of, and the civilized world knew nothing of them till their re-discovery by Capt. Cook in 1778. The natives received Cook with feelings of interest, and accepted in him the fulfillment. of an ancient belief, that the god Zozo, who had once been one of their kings, would return again. From an intimation of their religious belief, we can easily understand the respect and courtesy with which this white god was received and entertained; but the real principles and depravity of this man we can as easily understand, when we know that he accepted their worship as the god whom they believed him to be, and took their many gifts without offering remuneration. The first appearance of the ships afar off was to them the movement of an island grove, and they spoke of them as moku, (surrounded land) and as the

ships came nearer and people were seen walking upon their decks, their first impressions were confirmed, and to-day the word in their language meaning "ship" is the same as that first uttered. To the childish mind the death of Capt. Cook was represented by a woodcut in the geography with accompanying text, by which we were impressed with the idea of the Captain's singular goodness, as we were with the christian virtue of the young "Pocahontas, the King's daughter." But what a common distrust has come upon us in the truth of chroniclers, as we come in later life to know that the story of the fair Pocahentas is now, on historical evidence, assumed to be false, and that Capt. Cook, gratifying his cupidity by exhausting demands upon the barbariansfaith, and by desecrating their temples: merely to supply himself with fuel, met his death not blamelessly at the hands of an awakened intelligence in that savage people, in whom patient endurance would not have been longer a virtue.

The advent of foreigners, following the visit of the first ships, opened the eyes of the natives, who were: naturally interested in the aspect and manners of a new and evidently superior people, and unceasingly curious in the methods and accomplishments of the strangers. Personal contact with repeated collections of civilized people could not but have its effect in mollifying and moderating the habitual barbaric life. Trade and the acquisition of new things excited and developed in them new desires and capacities. The occasional addition to the population of the islands by runaways from ships, and the gradual increase of traders, who settled for a time, gave the natives some insight into another mode of life, which, if not inspired by the best cultivation or highest principles of morality, was yet much more elevated and civilized than had ever come within cheir