400 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
longer necessary. But it must be remembered that the immi- grants had the new land to subdue, that they had very inferior tools and no possible way, from their own resources, of acquir- ing better ones and that they had a most oppressive system of government. Consequently the majority of the people would still find that life was by no means easy. Moreover, infanticide was now a long-established custom. It probably ceased among the chiefs at this time, for they could get the means of subsist- ence without difficulty. But among the lower classes, while its frequency might diminish, it would not be likely to disappear entirely.
The missionaries have usually estimated that among the common people about two-thirds of all the children were put to death, either before or after birth. But again it should be noted that when the missionaries landed society was in an abnormal, if not degenerate, state. The islanders had just emerged from the Kamehameha wars. Many thousands of the inhabitants had been killed by the weapons supplied by traders from Christian countries. Conquest was followed by confiscation. And war had brought forth its natural children poverty, vice, and misery. It is not to be supposed that in the normal state of Hawaiian society infanticide was practiced to anything like the extent represented by the missionaries. Cook does not seem to have been aware of its existence ; and regarding parental love he testifies : " It was pleasing to observe with what affection the women managed their infants, and with what alacrity the men contributed their assistance to such a tender office." The fact that infanticide was practiced is perhaps a proof of the fertility, peaceableness, and healthiness of the people, rather than of their indolence or wantonness.
2. In early times wars were evidently not frequent in Hawaii, or else not severe. The natives in disposition were extremely mild, like the climate in which they lived. Besides, they had practically no destructive weapons. But Cook's seamen taught them the effectiveness of firearms and the superiority of civil- ized warfare to savage. Always quick to learn, so far as they had opportunities, the Hawaiians soon adopted the new mode of
