[Enclosure 1]

“Is the decline of population in the Hawaiian Islands in any extent due to the declining fertility of the natives?”

Cook’s est. exaggerated, Jarves’ History—(the best—) 8vo, p. 397. Causes of decline, 400, diseases: carelessness of life: promiscuous intercourse & incest: (venereal diseases have almost exhausted themselves:) fecundity comparatively rare: foreign clothing: filthy habits: drunkenness.³

Ellis, Pol. Res., 1831, iv. 326 (2^d ed.) infanticide prevalent in islands: p. 319, wars, intoxication, infanticide, diseases, causes of depopulation, Foeticide & abortion to be included.⁴

Darwin, Journal of Researches, c. xix⁵

Hill’s Travels, Society & Sandwich Is., p. 110.⁶

Hopkins’ Hawaii, Lond. 1869. c. xxiii; in 1840, in 1 district, but $\frac{1}{4}$ of the population were under the age of 18; by the census of Great Britain in 1851, the ratio of persons under & above 20 years = 9$\frac{1}{2}$ to 11$\frac{1}{2}$.⁷

R. Anderson’s Hist. of S. I. Mission, Boston, 1870. p. 332 Dr. Beratz testifies that no unusual amount of syphilis is now to be found on the Islands.⁸

Same author’s Hawaiian Islands, Bost. 1865. c. xvi, particulars of census for 1860 p. 277.⁹

[Enclosure 2]

Hawaiian Spectator, 1839, (Honolulu) a valuable article by a Hawaiian, David Malo; & one by the Rev. A. Bishop, stating there the majority of children born in the Is. died before they were 2 years old.¹⁰

Sandwich Island notes by a Häolé, (G. W. Bates), N.Y. 1854, has an intelligent estimate of past & present causes of depopulation, pp. 341–351.¹¹

Paradise in the Pacific, N.Y. 1873, Wm. R. Bliss, (an intelligent person) p. 57: “Marriages between the natives are not prolific, even when the married are in comfortable circumstances & of industrious habits, offspring are regarded as a calamity.”¹²

See also Answers to Questions by R. C. Wyllie, Minister of For. Relations, addressed to all the Haw. Missionaries: Honolulu, 1848, 8vo, an important work: I cannot get at it here; it may be in the Brit. Museum;¹³ AS. Dibble’s Hist., p. 128, on infanticide.¹⁴ Ans. to Questions, p. 47. says: “Habits (of illicit intercourse)¹⁵ were often commenced at the age of 2 or 3 years, & continued in such a manner as to induce genital impotency.” “These habits were deemed necessary to the preservation of friendship & good feeling toward one another,” says the “Haoli”, from whom the above quotation from “Questions” is taken, p. 344.¹⁶

[Enclosure 3]

Hawaiian depopulation: Causes summarized

I Past. abortion

Sodomy

Early & excessive copulation

Infanticide

Licentiousness, polyandry

Syphilis

Pestilence

War

Measles, Smallpox, influenza, & other foreign diseases. Leprosy has been developed during the past few years.

II Present

—Foreign diseases: influenza, measles.

—Changed habits of life: particularly dress, wh. seems fatal, Houses, cookery, occupations, are no longer adapted to the environment. The Hawaiians’ habits were more changed in 50 years than the Englishman’s in 1000;¹⁷ & the change was imposed, not spontaneous.

—

—Utter recklessness of health & life; irregularities of dress, diet, medical treatment, habits of sleeping & bathing, etc. The Hawaiian will not take the trouble to change his wet clothes: he will wear clothes one week, & go naked the next; he will rush into the river during the height of an eruptive fever.

—Licentiousness is still prevalent in many forms though less so than formerly.

—Abortion & foeticide I believe to be still practised secretly.

The Hawaiian has little power, physical or psychical, of resisting disease. His [lease] of life is small. At present he does not die so easily of foreign diseases as formerly, selection having taken place. In the case of syphilis & the exanthemata, the point of saturation seems to have been approached, as in the case of European constitutions.

[Enclosure 4]

The population of the group has been estimated at various periods as follows:

Cook’s estimate was a mere guess: & the estimate of 1823 was not much better. Even the official censuses are not very accurate.— The half-breeds are in majority   Children of Chinese fathers & Hawaiian mothers (married): the next in number are the children of married American men & Hawaiian women: there are various other combinations, & illegitimate children.— The children of the American missionaries, now living on the Island, are some 200 in number. They intermarry freely, & are prolific.