"They Will Greet You For Your Sake"

"They Will Greet You for Your Sake"
The Hawaiians entry into the nineteenth century
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One could only imagine how life on these pristine islands flourished 1400 years ago. Subsisting in a land bequest with beauty found nowhere else on earth, teaming with victuals from both land and sea. Those first occupants might have existed here as much as 600 years before a second band from the southern hemisphere appeared. As many as 20 to 30 continuous generations inhabited this archipelago unrenowned to the rest of the world. Moreover for almost all of these generations, this might have been the center of the universe, for they knew of nowhere else. It is believed that those that first arrived, did so from the Marquesas, and were thought to have carried a rather docile demeanor to their culture. These initial generations probably lived, sharing a boundary adjoining true paradise, flanking generation after generation for possibly 600 years. For these people, and those that followed, an idyllic existence endured, and the evolution of their society was impacted from within. Which is to say, that whatever good, evil, spiritual, or social progression took place, it proceeded untouched by outside influences until 1778.Occasionally during the later years, as travel between the new world and the orient progressed, shipwrecked survivors had been known to escape the perils of the sea, and wash upon the islands shores. However their impact was felt genetically as to their assimilation, and did little to affect the social structure of Hawaiian society.
It would be hard to imagine drawbacks to a society living in such tranquility, devoid of disease, pestilence, jealousy, indifference, or arrogance. Yet even with the archipelago’s wealth of natural confluence aiding greatly in the subsistence of its inhabitants, it is but a mere 7000 square miles in area. Thus, continued existence depended heavily on a population that remained stabilized. To the ruling Alii(chiefs), this had to have been one of the major challenges for sustained existence.
In the population centers of Europe, the Middle East, the Orient, and Africa, famine, and disease, at times in epidemic proportions did the most to curve population growth. This was not the case in a land free of the common cold, or where the mosquito did not exist. So could the seasons beset with warlike activities that are etched in the Hawaiian calendar since the arrival of the second wave of Polynesians around the 12th century be construed as a form of population control? Moreover, if this was the case, it succeeded in achieving a harmonic balance between the islands natural constrictions and the Hawaiian race. In turn this equilibrium between man and nature, allowed them to subsist independently of the outside world for possibly 1400 years. However with the progression of ocean travel in the Pacific it was but a matter of time before these placid islands, in its tranquil setting, were revealed. When Captain James Cook stumbled upon them, it opened the door to a host of callers from various parts of the world. Unfortunately with their visits came their vices of tobacco, alcohol, gambling, and much more, which in all honesty, many Hawaiians embraced. However it was their diseases that overwhelmed this society, void of even the most diminutive resistance to infection. In the 72 years that followed Cooks arrival, major occurrences influenced the Hawaiian race socially, as well as spiritually, religiously and economically, doing much to change the outlook and future of its culture. Yet, no impact was felt more prodigiously than the insidious epidemics be felled native Hawaiians between 1778 and 1850.The population controls of the Ancients were no longer required, for they had been replaced by the descending world of the 19th century.
So trusting the people of these islands had been, despite the many fallacies handed them. However their patience surely must been challenged, considering their dwindling numbers due to infectious diseases. Yet the hospitable characteristics of the Hawaiian race could not be concealed despite the injustices delivered on them. Although they were becoming quite aware of the misleading notions that have accompanied the Americans in their intrusion upon these delightful islands.They still greeted them, if only for their sake, indeed hoping that they might acknowledge the inequalities leveled upon them.