AN INQUIRY INTO THE CAUSES OF THE DECREASE OF THE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE.
"Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." These words, according to the philosophical writer of the first chapter of Genesis, the Creator addressed to the first parents of the human race. One of the most notable exceptions to the law of life here implied may be observed in the later history of the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaiian people, after multiplying, and replenishing their islands in the Pacific, have been decreasing steadily for more than one hundred years.
When Captain Cook discovered Hawaii, 1778–79, he and Mr. King estimated the population at 400,000. When Vancouver, who had accompanied Cook, revisited the islands in 1792, "the depopulation throughout the group . . . . struck him painfully." The missionaries arrived in 1820. Three years later they estimated the number of inhabitants at 142,000. In 1832 the first official census was taken, and from that time the census returns are as follows:
| 1832 | 1836 | 1850 | 1853 | 1860 | ||
| Hawaiian and part Hawaiian | 130,313 | 108,579 | 82,203 | 71,019 | 67,084 | |
| 1866 | 1872 | 1878 | 1884 | 1890 | 1896 | |
| Hawaiian | 57,125 | 49,994 | 44,088 | 40,014 | 34,436 | 31,019 |
| Part Hawaiian | 1,640 | 1,487(?) | 34,420 | 4,218 | 6,186 | 8,485 |
| ——— | ——— | ——— | ——— | ——— | ——— | |
| Total | 58,765 | 51,481 | 47,508 | 44,232 | 40,622 | 39,504 |
The number of the native population is not given in the census returns of 1900 thus far available; it has been estimated at 38,000.
The decrease of the Hawaiian people has been dealt with in almost every book that has been written about the islands. Of these numerous treatments that of Professor Blackman in The Making of Hawaii, although in some respects defective—owing apparently to the author's overconfidence in his authorities—is undoubtedly the best. A number of interesting articles have also appeared on the subject, notably one by Rev. A. Bishop in
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