514-515
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and the remainder from England, Mexico, Chile, and other sources.
"Four newspapers in the Hawaiian tongue have been sustained by the missionaries. The first, Lama Hawaii, was commenced in 1833. The present Ka Elele, besides much religious matter, gives a summary of general news, publishes Government notices, and affords scope for the literary efforts of the natives themselves, some of whom manifest respectable powers of thought and composition.
"It is computed that 70,000 of the population have learned to read and 65,444,000 printed pages have been issued from the mission press, embracing, among other works, two complete editions, of 10,000 each, of the Holy Scriptures, three of the New Testament, amounting to 30,000 copies, Worcesters Sacred Geography, Universal Geography, Geographical Questions, Scripture Chronology and History, Animals of the Earth, with a chart. History of Beasts, Hawaiian History, Church History, Mathematics, embracing Geometry, Trigonometry, Mensuration, Surveying and Navigation, Colburn's Algebra, Anatomy, Wayland's Moral Philosophy, Colburn's Intellectual Arithmetic, Tract on Astronomy, Maps of Universal Geography, and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.
"The works published have been altogether of a devotional or educational class. More interest would have been awakened could some others of a less grave and more historic character have been included."
"A moral sentiment, founded more upon a classification of certain actions, either as evil or as good, and their attendant punishments or rewards than upon any definite ideas of sin and virtue considered in their relations to moral purity and the love of the Father, pervades the nation. With the more enlightened something superior to this prevails. Consequently, as in older Christianized communities, a man enjoys respect in proportion to his moral qualifications. Vice is condemned and virtue applauded. Many, of course, are to be found more fond of a good name than of the means necessary for its attainment. Publicly they are one being, privately another.
"The very fact of the necessity of the deception shows a great advancement in moral sentiment since the days of Liholiho, and instead of being considered a reproach to the missionaries should be hailed as a favorable symptom of their labors, the dawn of further improvement. In humanity, care for the sick and aged, their domestic relations, honesty, temperance, and systematic industry there has been great advancement. From a warlike, treacherous, and cruel people they have become mild, tractable, and desirous of knowledge. The intelligent observer will find much in their present character to gratify him and more to surprise when he contrasts them with what they were but a score of years since. But he who goes among them, his imagination picturing a nation changed from brutal savages, by the spirit of God, to guileless Christians, worshiping Jehovah in all the innocence and strength of a first love, their family altars emblems of purity and happiness, their congregations simple and sincere, and their dispositions and deportment refined to the high standard of Christian excellence in his own country, will be sadly disappointed.
"It is still difficult to make the natives understand the nature of truth. They have been so accustomed, from their earliest years, to habits of deception, that with very many, perhaps the majority, it may be doubted whether any other sensation arises from the detection of a falsehood than mortification at being discovered. In no other point
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are they more obtuse, but this moral bluntness is gradually wearing away. Licentiousness is a chief vice of the nation; not that they are much worse in this respect than nations generally residing within the tropics, but it continues to be their most prominent trait. A few years ago, in its protean forms, it was common to all, and as undisguised as the light of day. Now it hides its head, and seeks a new garment to conceal its foul markings. The following table of crime for Oahu will serve to show the proportion of other offenses to those of sensuality. It is taken from the Kuma Hawaii, of January 16,1839, a native paper, but the period embraced in the report is not given. And it should be recollected that but a small proportion of the latter offenses are ever detected or exposed. A number of foreigners are embraced in the list, chiefly for riot, mutiny, and desertion.
Offenses
|
Manslaughter |
4 |
|
Theft |
48 |
|
Riot |
32 |
|
False witness |
48 |
|
Desertion |
30 |
|
Mutiny |
15 |
|
Seduction |
18 |
|
Lewdness |
81 |
|
Adultery |
246 |
|
| |
|
Total |
522 |
"Another table of purely native cases for Honolulu, taken from the records of the 'inferior court' from January 1, 1846, to December 4, of the same year, gives the following striking result:
| Offense. |
Men. |
Women. |
Total. |
| Adultery, fornication |
126 |
127 |
253 |
| Theft |
43 |
3 |
46 |
| Gambling |
35 |
3 |
38 |
| Desecration of Sabbath |
20 |
8 |
38 |
| Reviling language |
12 |
2 |
14 |
| Heathenish practices |
3 |
1 |
4 |
| Assault and battery |
7 |
1 |
8 |
| Drunkenness |
6 |
.... |
6 |
| Furious riding |
6 |
.... |
6 |
| Rape |
2 |
.... |
2 |
| Interference with police |
3 |
.... |
3 |
| Street walking |
.... |
4 |
4 |
| Slander |
1 |
.... |
1 |
| Passing false coin |
1 |
.... |
1 |
| Desertion of husband |
.... |
3 |
3 |
|
|
|
| |
| Total |
275 |
152 |
427 |
"The above table shows a conviction of 427 cases out of a population of about 9,000. To these should be added 121 others, tried before the police court, making in all rather more than 600 cases for 1846. Of the 121, 38 were for licentiousness and 43 for stealing. But few occur for fighting, the Hawaiians being a very peaceable people. A great deal of petty thieving exists, particularly towards foreigners to steal from whom is not viewed so disreputable as from themselves. The standard of morality, it will be seen, is low, particularly among the men; but
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