The Thought That We Were Actually Going Up For The Last Time,
And That The Next Time We Went Round
San Diego point it would
be "homeward bound," brought things so near a close, that we
felt as though we
Were just there, though it must still be the
greater part of a year before we could see Boston.
I spent one evening, as had been my custom, at the oven with the
Sandwich Islanders; but it was far from being the usual noisy,
laughing time. It has been said, that the greatest curse to each
of the South Sea islands, was the first man who discovered it;
and every one who knows anything of the history of our commerce
in those parts, knows how much truth there is in this; and that
the white men, with their vices, have brought in diseases before
unknown to the islanders, and which are now sweeping off the native
population of the Sandwich Islands, at the rate of one fortieth of
the entire population annually. They seem to be a doomed people.
The curse of a people calling themselves Christian, seems to follow
them everywhere; and even here, in this obscure place, lay two
young islanders, whom I had left strong, active young men, in the
vigor of health, wasting away under a disease, which they would
never have known but for their intercourse with Christianized Mexico
and people from Christian America. One of them was not so ill; and
was moving about, smoking his pipe, and talking, and trying to keep
up his spirits; but the other, who was my friend, and Aikane - Hope,
was the most dreadful object I had ever seen in my life:
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