"When this ceremony was finished, which Captain Cook put an end to as soon as he decently could, we quitted the Moral."
Evidently the whole purpose of Captain Cook in permitting this performance, was to flatter and gratify the natives and make himself strong to command them. The Captain himself was sickened, and got away as quickly as he could without giving offense. This was not the only case in which the native priests presented the navigator as a superior being. Perhaps the view the old sailor took of the style of ceremony was as there were so many gods, one more or less did not matter. Cook never attached importance to the freaks of superstition, except so far as it might be made useful in keeping the bloody and beastly savages in check. Bearing upon this point we quote W.D. Alexander's "Brief History of the Hawaiian People," pages 33-34:
"Infanticide was fearfully prevalent, and there were few of the older women at the date of the abolition of idolatry who had not been guilty of it. It was the opinion of those best informed that two-thirds of all the children born were destroyed in infancy by their parents. They were generally buried alive, in many cases in the very houses occupied 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 precious metal, and they were not cheated. A long drawn out effort has been made to impress the world that Cook thought himself almost a god, and was a monster. The natives gave to the wonderful people who came to them in ships, liberally of their plenty, and received in return presents that pleased them, articles of utility. Beads came along at a later day. The natives believed Cook one of the heroes of the imagination that they called gods. He sought to propitiate them and paid for fruit and meat in iron and showy trifles. His policy of progress was to introduce domestic animals.
Note the temper of Mr. Abraham Fornander, a man who has meant honesty of statement, but whose information was perverted: