Sandwich Islands  Source  Whalesite

D I S S E R T A T I O N

      The shortness of our stay at these islands having scarcely allowed me to spend a few hours on shore, I found it impossible to give to my researches the accuracy and extent that I wished, in order to answer in a satisfactory manner the questions proposed by the Society of Medicine. I shall confine myself therefore to the correction of certain errors which, in my opinion, are to be found in the accounts of former navigators, and to a general account of the natives of these islands, and the diseases to which they appear to be subject.

      We anchored at Easter Island, lying in 27° 9' south latitude, and 111° 55' 30" west longitude, on the 9th of April 1786.

      The aspect of the island is by no means so barren and disgusting as navigators have asserted. It is indeed almost destitute of trees; but the valleys and the sides of the hills exhibit, particularly to the eye of the seaman, an agreeable covering of verdure; and the size and excellence of its potatoes, yams, sugar canes, &c. are proofs of the richness of the soil.

      The accounts given of the inhabitants appear to be equally incorrect. We find here neither the giants of Roggewein, nor the meagre, half-starved beings described by a modern navigator, who has characterised them by a general wretchedness, which is entirely void of foundation. Instead of meeting with men exhausted by famine, so as to be spectacles almost too shocking for the sight, and a few women, "who with difficulty escaped

being buried under the ruins of a supposed revolution in that part of the world," I found, on the contrary, a considerable population, with more beauty and grace than I afterwards met with in any other island; and a soil, which, with very little labour, furnished excellent provisions, and in an abundance more than sufficient for the consumption of the inhabitants, though fresh water was extremely scarce, and what we found of a bad quality.

      These islanders are stout and of an agreeable figure, about fine feet four inches in height, and well proportioned. Their countenance, except in colour, hardly differs from that of Europeans. They have little hair on the chin, and other parts of the body, except the sexual parts; and below the arm pits, which are tolerably furnished. The colour of the skín is tawny, and the hair in general black, but there are a few instances in which it is light. They appear to have good health, which they retain even at an advanced period of life. They are accustomed to paint and tattoo the skin, and to perforate the ears, in which they insert the leaf of a sugar cane, rolled up in a spiral form, which enlarges the perforation, so that the lobe of the ear floats as it were upon the shoulders: this is practised by the men only, and is considered as a mark of great beauty, which they are studious of acquiring.

      The women also unite to a regular shape considerable grace in the form of their limbs. Their face is of an agreeable oval, with mild and engaging features, and wants only a little ruddiness of complexion to render it handsome, according to the ideas which Europeans entertain of beauty. Their well turned figure, their fine hair and seducing appearance, are well calculated to inspire sentiments, which they feel without attempting to conceal them. Notwithstanding these attractive qualities, I could discover in the men no appearance of jealousy; on the contrary they sought for opportunities of selling their favours.

      These people are circumcised, and seem to live in complete, anarchy without being subject to any chief. Both men and women are in general nearly naked, no part of the body being covered but those of sex. Some

however, have a piece of cloth round their shoulders or loins, which reaches to the middle of the thigh.

      I am ignorant what ideas they entertain among themselves as to property; but they proved, by their conduct towards us, that they pay very little respect to that of strangers. They became so fond of our hats, that in a very few hours we were all of us robbed of them; and they then laughed at us, like mischievous school-boys who take dciight in teasing passengers.

      These people are not destitute of industry; for I remarked, that their cottages were of a tolerable size, and very well built. They are constructed of frame-work interwovcn with reeds, and are in the form of a cradle reversed, being fifty feet long, from ten to twelve broad, and twelve high in the middle. In the sides of these houses are several doors, the largest of which does not exceed three feet. The inside exhibits nothing remarkable, and contains only a few m ats, which they spread out by way of beds, and some other trifling utensils. Their stuffs are made of the paper mulberry; but they are not common, from the scarcity of the tree, which appears, however, to be cultivated with some attention. They fabricate also hats and baskets of rushes; and make beside small wooden images, the carving of which is tolerably executed. Their food consists of sweet potatoes, plantains, yams, sugar canes, fish, and a kind of sea-weed, or fucus, which abounds on the shore.

      Fowls, though few in number, are the only domestic animal we found on the island; and rats the only wild quadruped it produces. We saw a few sea fowl on the coast; but it appeared not to furnish any quantity of fish.

      In the eastern part of the island is a large crater, round nearly the whole circumference of which, on the sea shore, are seen a great number of shapeless statues, or rather busts, having the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, rudely carved; and at the foot of these statues are those mysterious caverns mentioned by Cook, which are small vaults that serve as burying places for the

dead of each family. The inhabitants allowed us to examine them without the smallest interruption.

      La Pérouse, though he had given already a considerable number of presents to these islanders, was desirous of adding other proofs of hís kindness, and of contributing to their happiness in a more permanent and essential manner. He therefore left with them two ewes, a she-goat and a sow, with a male of each species, and sowed various kinds of pulse, as well as peach, plum, and cherry stones, together with the seeds of oranges and lemons.

      If the intended benefit of these presents be not rendered ineffectual by the future conduct of the natives, this celebrated navigator will enjoy the glory of having contributed to their welfare, by enriching their island with animals and vegetables calculated to relieve their most urgent wants, and of having ensured to future navigators refreshments of every kind.

      Having executed these benevolent designs, we got under way, and directed our course towards the Sandwich Islands. As soon as we were in sight of Mowee, one of the islands of this archipelago, about two hundred canoes came off to meet us, ladea with hogs, fruits, and fresh vegetables, which the inhabitants had sent, and requested us to accept, without taking any thing in return. A brisk gale, however, having sprung up, which accelerated our course, we could neither fully avail ourselves of this supply, nor long enjoy the pleasure we derived from the picturesque view of the island, and the multitude of surrounding canoes, the various manoeuvres of which formed the most lively and entertaining spectacle the imagination can conceive. On the 29th of May we anchored to the west of this island, which is situate in latitude 20° 34' 30", and 158° 25' west longitude. The vegetation of this part of Mowee is by no means so luxuriant, nor the population so numerous, as in the eastern part, where we had just before touched; but scarcely had we anchored before we were surrounded by the inhabitants, who brought us, in their canoes, hogs, fruit, and fresh vegetables; and we began to traffic with so much success, that in a few hours

we had on board nearly three hundred hogs, and an acople supply of vegetables, which cost us only a few bits of iron: In my opinion, there are few European markets where business is conducted with greater dispatch or with more integrity than was displayed on this occasion by these islanders.

      Though the island of Mowee furnishes, in sufficient abundance, animals, and every species of food necessary to subsistence, the inhabitants neither enjoy an equal degree of health, nor possess the same elegance of form and beauty of person as the natives of Easter Island, who have fewer of such resources, and even as to those few, are more scantily provided. They appeared, however, to have some resemblance to them in their conformation, and in general to promise even a more robust make, if their health had not been impaired by disease. The common height of these people is about five feet three inches. They are of a thin habit of body, have large features, thick eye-brows, dark eyes, a confident though not savage look, high cheek-bones, wide nostrils, thick lips, a wide mouth, and rather large, but beautiful and even, teeth. We saw among them a few individuals who had lost one or two of their teeth; and it is the opinion of a modem traveller, that they pull them out in the moment of distress, and thus manifest their grief for the loss of their relations or friends; but I observed no circumstance that could either confirm or contradict this opinion.

      These people have brawnier muscles, thicker beards, and more hair on the parts of generation than the natives of Easter Island. The hair of the head, which is black, they cut into the form of a helmet, with the exception of a single lock, representing the crest, which they suffer to grow to its full length, and tinge the ends of it red, by means, perhaps, of some vegetable acid.

      The women are shorter than the men, and possess neither the gaiety, mildness, nor elegance of form, which distinguish those of Easter Island, being commonly ill made, with coarse features, a melancholy air, and are beside rude, sluggish, and aukward, in their manners.

      The inhabitants in general, however, are mild and engaging in their behaviour, and even show to strangers a degree of politeness. They paint and tattoo their skin, and bore their ears, as well as the cartilage of the nose, in which they wear rings by way of ornament. They do not practise circumcision; but some of them make for themselves an artificial fibula, by drawing the prepuce beyond the glans, and fixing it there by means of a ligature. The dress of both sexes consists of a sort of apron, covering what nature bids them conceal, and another piece of similar cloth wrapped round the body. The stuffs, manufactured by these islanders from the bark of the paper-mulberry, are extremely beautiful, and of various kinds. They paint them with considerable taste, and the designs are so regular, that one might almost believe they had copied some of our chintz. Their houses, collected into villages, are constructed of the same materials as those of Easter Island, but their form is square.

      Judging from appearances, the best conjecture I could make as to the state of society in this island is, that the inhabitants are divided into several tribes, each of which is governed by a chief.

      The beauty of the climate, and fertility of the soil, might render the inhabitants extremély happy, if the leprosy and venereal disease prevailed among them less generally, and with less virulence. These scourges, the most humiliating and most destructive with which the human race are afflicted, display themselves among these islanders by the following symptoms: buboes, and scars which result from their suppurating, warts, spreading ulcers with caries of the bones, nodes, exostoses, fistula, tumors of the lachrymal and salival ducts, scrofulous swellings, inveterate ophthalmiae, ichorous ulcerations of the tunica conjunctiva, atrophy of the eyes, blindness, inflamed prurient herpetic eruptions, indolent swellings of the extremities, and among children, scald head, or a malignant tinea, from which exudes a fetid and acrid matter. I remarked, that the greater part of these unhappy victims of sensuality, when arrived at the age of nine or ten, were feeble and languid, exhausted by marasmus, and affected with the rickets.

      The indolent swelling of the extremities, which we observed among the natives of Mowee, and which Anderson, surgeon of captain Cook's ship, remarked also among most of the inhabitants of the South-Sea Islands, is nothing more than a symptom of an advanced state of elephantiasis, as I assured myself, as far as was possible, by examining a great number of lepers in the hospitals of Madeira and Manilla.

      In this period of the disease, the skin has already lost it's sensibility; and if the activity of the virus be not checked by proper treatment and regimen, the swollen parts soon lose entirely both their irritability and sensibility, the skin becomes scaly, and phlyctaenae are formed, filled with fetid and corrosive matter, which will occasion, without extreme care, gangrenous or carcinomatous ulcers. The nature or quality of the food may concur with the heat of the climate to nourish and propagate this endemic disease of the adipous membrane; for the hogs even, the flesh of which forms the chief part of the food of the inhabitants of Mowee, are many of them extremely measly. I examined several, and their skins were scabby, full of pimples, and entirely destitute of hair. On opening these animals, I found the caul regularly sprinkled with tubercles, and the viscera so full of them, that, in the least delicate stomach, the sight could not but have produced a nausea. Among the diseases with which these islanders are so deplorably afflicted, there are some that seem to be produced by the venereal virus in all it's activity; but it appears, for the most part, under a degenerated form, or combined with psora or itch.

      The shortness of our stay, and other circumstances, did not permit me to acquire any information respecting the mode of treatment employed by the natives for the cure of these disorders; but to judge from their inactive suffering, and the progress of their infirmities, I am induced to think, that they are acquainted with no means of alleviating the misery of their condition.

      Has the lues venerea been communicated to the Sandwich Islands by the crews of captain Cook's ships? The advanced state of the disorder, and

the progress it had made among the inhabitants of Mowee, when Cook touched there, nine months and a half after his first intercourse with the natives of Atooi and Oneeheow, added to the defects observable in the conformation of certain individuals of every age, are circumstances, which, if they do not demonstrate, may at least incline us to believe, that the disease existed in these islands before the discovery of them by this celebrated navigator. Proofs of this might even be deduced from his own accounts. When he arrived off Mowee, he communicated with some of the natives, who brought him fresh provisions in their canes, while he was at the distance of several leagues from the shore. Speaking of this circumstance, he says, "Women were also forbidden to be admitted into the ships, except under certain restrictions. But the evil I meant to prevent by this regulation, I soon found had already got amongst them. And, as yet, I know of no other way of it's reaching them, but by an. intercourse with their neighbours since our leaving them.^*

      This was the simplest and most rational explanation; but it does not satisfactorily account for the possibility of the fact: for though the islands of Atooi and Oneeheow are separated from Mowee only by channels a few leagues wide, it does not follow, that communication between them should be so easy as for the venereal disease to be diffüsed in consequence of it through the whole population of Mowee. It appears also from captain Cook's narrative, that the natives of the different islands are rarely upon. good terms with each other, a circumstance highly unfavourable to frequent intercourse. Beside, how are we to account for the behaviour of the people of Mowee towards the English, when they appeared off the island? If the natives were suffering so severely from evils occasioned by the landing of these strangers on the territory of their neighbours, would they so readily have supplied their wants? On the contrary, is it not probable, that they would have shown reserve and mistrust, instead of exposing themselves to danger, in order to present them with the productions of their island? It may still farther be observed, that it does not

seem possible to explain the rapid progress of the contagion, unless by admitting, that the lues venerea, like epidemic disorders, may be propagated by a peculiar state of the atmosphere: a supposition which the experience of medical men has long since exploded, having been thereby convinced, that it is to be produced neither by unwholesome food, bad air, nor spontaneous corruption of the humours, but solely by immediate contact with an infected person.

      From these considerations I eonceive it probable; that the venereal discase existed in the Sandwich isles previous to the arrival of Cook; and that it was either indigenous, or else. had been introduced by former navigators.

      Some light might probably be thrown on the origin of this disease in these islands, by historical and geographical researches; but I shall not enter into this discussion, considering it as foreign to the object of the present dissertation ^*.

John Francis Galaup De La Perouse.
      A Voyage Round the World, Performed in the Years 1785, 1786, 1787, and 1788, by the Boussole and Astrolabe, under the Command of J. R G. De La Perouse.
Vol. II, pp.332-341.
  London: Printed by A. Hamilton, for G. G. and J. Robinson, Paternoster-Row 5 J. Edwards, Pall-Mall 5 and T. Payne, Mews-Gate, Castle-Street. 1799.

      This selection is from the volume available at the Internet Archive.

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