by their unnatural parents. On all the islands the number of males was
much greater than that of females, in consequence of the girls being
more frequently destroyed than the boys. The principal reason given
for it was laziness--unwillingness to take the trouble of rearing
children. It was a very common practice for parents to give away
their children to any persons who were willing to adopt them.

"No regular parental discipline was maintained, and the children
were too often left to follow their own inclinations and to become
familiar with the lowest vices.

"Neglect of the helpless. Among the common people old age was
despised. The sick and those who had become helpless from age were
sometimes abandoned to die or put to death. Insane people were also
sometimes stoned to death."

Again we quote Alexander's History, page 49:

"Several kinds of food were forbidden to the women on pain of death,
viz., pork, bananas, cocoanuts, turtles, and certain kinds of fish,
as the ulua, the humu, the shark, the hihimanu or sting-ray, etc. The
men of the poorer class often formed a sort of eating club apart
from their wives. These laws were rigorously enforced. At Honannau,
Hawaii, two young girls of the highest rank, Kapiolani and Keoua,
having been detected in the act of eating a banana, their kahu, or
tutor, was held responsible, and put to death by drowning. Shortly
before the abolition of the tabus, a little child had one of her eyes
scooped out for the same offense. About the same time a woman was
put to death for entering the eating house of her husband, although
though she was tipsy at the time."

Captain Cook seems to have committed the unpardonable sin in not
beginning the stated work of preaching the gospel a long generation
before the missionaries arrived, and the only sound reason for this
is found in Dibble's History, in his statement that the islanders
steadily degenerated until the missions were organized.

Writers of good repute, A. Fornander, chief of them, are severe with
Captain Cook on account of his alleged greed, not paying enough for
the red feathers woven into fanciful forms. Perhaps that is a common
fault in the transactions of civilized men with barbarians. William
Penn is the only man with a great reputation for dealing fairly with
American Red Men, and he was not impoverished by it. Cook gave nails
for hogs, and that is mentioned in phrases that are malicious. Iron
was to the islanders the precio