tle difficulty in having such intercourse with the
people as they chose. In regard to that intercourse, it was marked,
as the world would say, with kindness and humanity. But it cannot be
concealed that here and there at this time, in the form of loathsome
disease, was dug the grave of the Hawaiian nation; and from so deep an
odium it is to be regretted that faithful history cannot exempt even
the fair name of Captain Cook himself, since it was evident that he
gave countenance to the evil. The native female first presented to
him was a person of some rank; her name was Lelemahoalani. Sin and
death were the first commodities imported to the Sandwich Islands."

We have already quoted Captain Cook's first words on this subject. He
had much more to say giving in detail difficulties rather too searching
to be fully stated. As for the charge that Cook personally engaged
in debauchery, it rests upon the tradition of savages, who had no
more idea than wild animals of the restraint of human passion. It was
debated among the islanders whether the white men should be assailed
by the warriors, and it was on the advice of a native queen that the
women were sent to make friends with the strangers; and this was the
policy pursued. As for the decline of the natives in numbers, and the
"digging the grave of the nation." the horror of the islands was the
destruction of female infants, and also the habit of putting aged
and helpless men and women to death. The general indictment against
Captain Cook is that this amiable race was just about prepared
for Christianity when he thrust himself forward as a god, and with
his despotic licentiousness destroyed immediate possibilities of
progress. In Sandwich Island notes by "a Haole" (that is to say,
a white person) we see what may be said on the other side of the
picture: "It becomes an interesting duty to examine their social,
political and religious condition. The first feature that calls the
attention to the past is their social condition, and a darker picture
can hardly be presented to the contemplation of man. They had their
frequent boxing matches on a public arena, and it was nothing uncommon
to see thirty or forty left dead on the field of contest.

"As gamblers they were inveterate. The game was indulged in by
every person, from the king of each island to the meanest of his
subjects. The wager accompanied every scene of public amusement. They
gambled away their property to the last vest