Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

HAWAII. 495-Sandwich flora may be said to abound more in arborescent than in herbaceous forms.Even many plants which in Europe are annuals, here become perennial.The native fauna is very poor in mammals, and before the arrival of Cook theonly domestic animals were the dog, the pig, and poultry, all probably introducedwithin a few centuries previously. The only indigenous mammals are the mouseand a species of bat, while the reptile class was represented only by three smalllizards. Of land and aquatic birds there are some 40 species, amongst which not aFig. 225.— HONOLTTLU.Scale 1 : 250,000'OMWest of Greenwich 157 ' 52'Depths.3J0 Feetand upwards.sino-le songster is found. The most highly valued bird was the oo {drcpanis paafiea),whose beautiful black plumage was Taried with a few small yellow feathers ingreat demand for the decoration of the chiefs. The royal robe of Kamehameha I.,which represented the labour of nine successive generations, was entirely made ofthese feathers attached to a ground of close netting. The streams are almostdestitute of fish, while molluscs abound in prodigious quantities.The Hawaiians have long lost their national usages, which resembled those ofthe kindred peoples in New Zealand and eastern Polynesia. They now regard theruins of their ancient sanctuaries with as much religious indifference as the presentgeneration of Britons do the Stonehenge monoliths. Even when the first missionariesarrived, in 1820, most of the natives had already ceased to believe in theirnational gods, and religious wars had broken out between the conservative andprogressive parties. But after the ofiicial conversion of the chiefs all their subjectshud to conform under the severest penalties. Then the rivalries between the