aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

42 AROUND THE WORLD.
Dr. Damon of Honolulu said a certain shipmaster, dealing
with the Marshall Islanders, agreed to pay for coeoanut-oil a
fixed amount of tobacco ; but, in place, delivered " boxes
filled with pieces of old tarred ropes cut up to correspond in
length with tobacco-plugs." This was civilization ! Another
merchant trader, dealing with them, sold them for " stipulated
brandies, kegs filled with salt water."
Two captains of whalers from Massachusetts under friendlypretenses
coaxed several chiefs aboard ;
then, moving out into
the harbor, demanded a heavy ransom for their delivery.
Others, aflame with passion, have with basest motives induced
the native women to come upon their vessels. And, when
these poor natives have retahated, the cry has been " savages,"
" cannibals," " fiendish heathen !
"
When the New-Zealand aborigines were at war, a few years
since, with the English for the illegal seizure of their lands,
the unsuspecting Maoris were unprepared for an attack, because
it was the Christian sabbath. They had been taught
that Christian soldiers would neither attack nor fight on the
Lord's Day. And yet, on this sacred day, they rushed out
well-prepared, attacking and butchering hundreds of the
trusting heathen. The wrongs, deceptions, and diseases of
civilization have been so burnt into the bodies and souls
these aborigines, that they distrust
skin. Are they blamable ?
The distinguished Rosser sadly says, —
of
everybody with a white
" It is painful to be obliged to rejwrt that disease is now being rapidly
introduced even among the Ralik Islanders by whale-ships passing the
islands, and which now permit natives with females on board their vessels.
How sad that the safe residences of missionaries among them
should be the causes of attracting physical and moral death to their
shores ! With but few exceptions, the contact with the representatives
of civilization serves to render their diseases more deadly, and their
vices more vicious."
So far as missionaries have taught these islanders to read
and write, taught them the industries of civilization, they