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 vestige of all they possessed.  They staked every article, of food, their growing crops, the dollies they wore, their lands, wives, daughters, and even the very bones of their arms and legs—­to be made into fishhooks after they were dead.  These steps led to the most absolute and crushing poverty.

“They had their dances, which were of such a character as not to be conceived by a civilized mind, and were accompanied by scenes which would have disgraced even Nero’s revels.  Nearly every night, with the gathering darkness, crowds would retire to some favorite spot, where, amid every species of sensual indulgence they would revel until the morning twilight.  At such times the chiefs would lay aside their authority, and mingle with the lowest courtesan in every degree of debauchery.

“Thefts, robberies, murders, infanticide, licentiousness of the most debased and debasing character, burying their infirm and aged parents alive, desertion of the sick, revolting cruelties to the unfortunate maniac, cannibalism and drunkenness, form a list of some of the traits in social life among the Hawaiians in past days.

“Their drunkenness was intense.  They could prepare a drink, deadly intoxicating in its nature, from a mountain plant called the awa (Piper methysticum).  A bowl of this disgusting liquid was always prepared and served out just as a party of chiefs were sitting down to their meals.  It would sometimes send the victim into a slumber from which he never awoke.  The confirmed awa drinker could be immediately recognized by his leprous appearance.