THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 150

dent desisted from patricide. But in Hawaii immoral-ity, war and infanticide were as prevalent as in theSouth Pacific. Probably one-third of the children wereput to death. One woman once said to a missionary,“1 have had thirteen children, and I have buried themall alive. Oh that you had come sooner to teach mebetter!” The missionaries once rescued a boy by thename of Kuaea from a grave in which he had beenplaced to be buried alive; and he grew up in their careto become the most popular preacher in Hawaii .

To this people in their primitive degradation the ad-vent of white men from civilized countries was like thecoming of beings from another planet. The first ofthese visitors was the Spanish navigator, Juan Gaetano,who discovered part of this group in 1555 but in jeal-ousy of other countries concealed the discovery. Hisancient chart, marking the situation ten degrees too fareast, has been found in the Spanish archives. Little isknown of his coming, so long ago, but more is knownof that of the English navigator, Capt. James Cook , whomade this group known to the world. He had beensent to the Pacific to observe the transit of Venus fromTahiti , and in a subsequent voyage went north to searchfor a passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and on the18th of January, 1778, discovered the island of Kauai ,and afterwards the other Hawaiian islands.

When he landed on Kauai all the multitude ofnatives who had gathered to see the strange phenomenaof his ships fell flat on the earth, and remained so untilhe made signs to them to rise. They took him for their