The manners and customs of the native Hawaiians are most interesting, but space forbids a description of them here. Their religion was a gross form of idolatry, with many gods. Human sacrifice was freely practiced. They deified dead chiefs and worshiped their bones. The great king, Kamehameha I., though an idolater, was a most progressive monarch, and invited Vancouver, who went there in 1794, taking swine, cattle, sheep, and horses, together with oranges and other valuable plants, to bring over teachers and missionaries to teach his people "the white man's religion."
THE WORK OF AMERICAN MISSIONARIES.
But it was not until 1820, after the death of the great king, that the first missionaries arrived, and they came from America. The year previous, in 1819, Kamehameha II. had destroyed many of the temples and idols and forbidden idol worship in the islands; consequently, when the missionaries arrived they beheld the unprecedented spectacle of a nation without a religion. The natives were rapidly converted to Christianity. It was these American missionaries who first reduced the Hawaiian language to writing, established schools and taught the natives. As a result of their work, the Hawaiians are the most generally educated people, in the elementary sense, in the world. There is hardly a person in the islands, above the age of eight years, who cannot read and write. In spite of education, however, many of the ancient superstitions still exist, and some of the old stone temples are yet standing. What the United States will do with these heathen temples remains to be seen. The natives revere them as relics of their savage history, and as such they may be preserved.
CHURCH IN HONOLULU, HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.
Built of lava stone. Seating capacity about 3000.
Aside from the horrors of superstitions, the Hawaiians lead a happy life, full of amusements of various kinds on the land and water—for Hawaiian men, women and children live much of their time in the water. Infants are often taught the art of swimming before they can walk. The surf riding or swimming of the natives astonished Captain Cook more than any of their remarkable performances. The time selected was when a storm was tossing the waves high and the surf was furious. Then the men and women would dive through the surf, with narrow boards about nine inches wide and eight feet long, and, swimming a mile or more out to sea, mount on the crest of a huge billow, and sitting, kneeling or standing, with wild gesticulations, ride over the waves and breakers like gods or demons of the storm. This practice has now ceased to be indulged in. But the swimming of the Kanaka boys, who flock around incoming steamers, and dive after and catch coins which tourists throw into the water, like so many ducks diving after corn, shows what a degree of perfection the natatorial art has attained among the native Hawaiians. Sledging down the mountain sides, boxing, and tournament riding are other popular amusements; and, with the exception of boxing, the women compete with the men in the amusements.
PRODUCTS AND COMMERCE.
Sugar is king in Hawaii as wheat is in the Northwest. In 1890 there were 19,000 laborers—nearly one-fifth of the total population—engaged on sugar plantations. Ten tons to the acre have been raised on the richest lands. The average is over four tons per acre, but it requires from eighteen to twenty months for a crop to mature. Rice growing is also an important industry. It is raised in marsh lands, and nearly all the labor is done by Chinese, though they do not own the land. Coffee is happily well suited to the soil that is unfitted for sugar and rice, and the Hawaiian coffee is particularly fine, combining the strength of the Java with a delicate flavor of its own.
Diversified farming is coming more into vogue. Fruit raising will undoubtedly become one of the most important branches when fast steamers are provided for its transportation. Sheep and cattle raising must also prove profitable, since the animals require little feeding and need no housing.