{"id":"01KG8AKSKB0GZ5C1D5PTDK2NKJ","cid":"bafkreidi3p5aapoqa7ak7pytrxavrrrhzlr5gbrpayk4nde3qebfgrgm54","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6946,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.152Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":6859,"text":"fact of such evidence existing at all is usually urged as a proof of\r\nthe elevated condition of the natives. Thus, at Honolulu, the capital\r\nof the Sandwich Islands, there are fine dwelling-houses, several\r\nhotels, and barber-shops, ay, even billiard-rooms; but all these are\r\nowned and used, be it observed, by whites. There are tailors, and\r\nblacksmiths, and carpenters also; but not one of them is a native.\r\n\r\nThe fact is, that the mechanical and agricultural employment of\r\ncivilized life require a kind of exertion altogether too steady and\r\nsustained to agree with an indolent people like the Polynesians.\r\nCalculated for a state of nature, in a climate providentially adapted\r\nto it, they are unfit for any other. Nay, as a race, they cannot\r\notherwise long exist.\r\n\r\nThe following statement speaks for itself.\r\n\r\nAbout the year 1777, Captain Cook estimated the population of Tahiti at\r\nabout two hundred thousand. By a regular census, taken some four or\r\nfive years ago, it was found to be only nine thousand. This amazing\r\ndecrease not only shows the malignancy of the evils necessary to\r\nproduce it; but, from the fact, the inference unavoidably follows that\r\nall the wars, child murders, and other depopulating causes, alleged to\r\nhave existed in former times, were nothing in comparison to them.\r\n\r\nThese evils, of course, are solely of foreign origin. To say nothing of\r\nthe effects of drunkenness, the occasional inroads of the small-pox,\r\nand other things which might be mentioned, it is sufficient to allude\r\nto a virulent disease which now taints the blood of at least two-thirds\r\nof the common people of the island; and, in some form or other, is\r\ntransmitted from father to son.\r\n\r\nTheir first horror and consternation at the earlier ravages of this\r\nscourge were pitiable in the extreme. The very name bestowed upon it is\r\na combination of all that is horrid and unmentionable to a civilized\r\nbeing.\r\n\r\nDistracted with their sufferings, they brought forth their sick before\r\nthe missionaries, when they were preaching, and cried out, “Lies, lies!\r\nyou tell us of salvation; and, behold, we are dying. We want no other\r\nsalvation than to live in this world. Where are there any saved through\r\nyour speech? Pomaree is dead; and we are all dying with your cursed\r\ndiseases. When will you give over?”\r\n\r\nAt present, the virulence of the disorder, in individual cases, has\r\nsomewhat abated; but the poison is only the more widely diffused.\r\n\r\n“How dreadful and appalling,” breaks forth old Wheeler, “the\r\nconsideration that the intercourse of distant nations should have\r\nentailed upon these poor, untutored islanders a curse unprecedented,\r\nand unheard of, in the annals of history.”\r\n\r\nIn view of these things, who can remain blind to the fact that, so far\r\nas mere temporal felicity is concerned, the Tahitians are far worse off\r\nnow, than formerly; and although their circumstances, upon the whole,\r\nare bettered by the presence of the missionaries, the benefits\r\nconferred by the latter become utterly insignificant when confronted\r\nwith the vast preponderance of evil brought about by other means.\r\n\r\nTheir prospects are hopeless. Nor can the most devoted efforts now\r\nexempt them from furnishing a marked illustration of a principle which\r\nhistory has always exemplified. Years ago brought to a stand, where all\r\nthat is corrupt in barbarism and civilization unite, to the exclusion\r\nof the virtues of either state; like other uncivilized beings, brought\r\ninto contact with Europeans, they must here remain stationary until\r\nutterly extinct.\r\n\r\nThe islanders themselves are mournfully watching their doom.\r\n\r\nSeveral years since, Pomaree II. said to Tyreman and Bennet, the\r\ndeputies of the London Missionary Society, “You have come to see me at\r\na very bad time. Your ancestors came in the time of men, when Tahiti\r\nwas inhabited: you are come to behold just the remnant of my people.”\r\n\r\nOf like import was the prediction of Teearmoar, the high-priest of\r\nParee; who lived over a hundred years ago. I have frequently heard it\r\nchanted, in a low, sad tone, by aged Tahitiana:—\r\n\r\n“A harree ta fow,\r\nA toro ta farraro,\r\nA now ta tararta.”\r\n\r\n“The palm-tree shall grow,\r\nThe coral shall spread,\r\nBut man shall cease.”\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJK7QV80GYR4NF29X1054","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKSKBFDH40ZA3CFZ6V92X","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.979Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:29.439Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}