325 West 27th St., | New York,
Feby. 14th 1874.
Mr. Charles Darwin,
Dear Sir:
My friend Prof. Youmans refers your question about the declining population of the Hawaiian Islands to me,—for the insufficient reason that I was born there (of American missionary parents) & spent my boyhood & early youth in the group (1836 to 1855).1 I fear that I cannot contribute much to the question. Nothing, I think, has been written to point out any essential or racial infertility among the Hawaiians, as distinguished from definitely pathological infertility. My own belief is that their decline in population is due in some extent to essential infertility: but this cause is not, as far as I know, discriminated from such causes as abortion, foeticide, infanticide, & syphilitic taint, all of which except, perhaps, the last I think to be still active among the natives. Until more accurate data can be had respecting the amount of these destructive agencies, I should feel uncertain respecting any decline in the reproductive power arising from more general causes. But I think that such a racial decline may exist;—the “mysterious agency”, perhaps of which you speak in chapter XIX of your “Journal of Researches”.2
I enclose my notes & references, taken during the past week from such books on the Islands as I had access to, for what little they may be worth. The list of censuses is, I believe, quite complete & accurately transcribed. I have figured in parallel columns the percentages of decrease of different periods.
—The half breeds were thought to be healthier & more clever, when I lived at the Islands, than the pure natives; & they were fertile, & are now fast increasing. I remember that a reward was offered, I think by the government, to parents who should have a family of more than (I think) 4 children.
If you think it likely that I could furnish you with any further data, I beg that you will call upon me, for I cannot express my debt of gratitude toward you for the reading of your works.
Respectfully yours, | Titus Munson Coan.
“Is the decline of population in the Hawaiian Islands in any extent due to the declining fertility of the natives?”
Cook’s est. exaggerated, Jarves’ History—(the best—) 8vo, p. 397. Causes of decline, 400, diseases: carelessness of life: promiscuous intercourse & incest: (venereal diseases have almost exhausted themselves:) fecundity comparatively rare: foreign clothing: filthy habits: drunkenness.3
Ellis, Pol. Res., 1831, iv. 326 (2d ed.) infanticide prevalent in islands: p. 319, wars, intoxication, infanticide, diseases, causes of depopulation, Foeticide & abortion to be included.4
Darwin, Journal of Researches, c. xix5
Hill’s Travels, Society & Sandwich Is., p. 110.6
Hopkins’ Hawaii, Lond. 1869. c. xxiii; in 1840, in 1 district, but of the population were under the age of 18; by the census of Great Britain in 1851, the ratio of persons under & above 20 years = 9 to 11.7
R. Anderson’s Hist. of S. I. Mission, Boston, 1870. p. 332 Dr. Beratz testifies that no unusual amount of syphilis is now to be found on the Islands.8
Same author’s Hawaiian Islands, Bost. 1865. c. xvi, particulars of census for 1860 p. 277.9
Hawaiian Spectator, 1839, (Honolulu) a valuable article by a Hawaiian, David Malo; & one by the Rev. A. Bishop, stating there the majority of children born in the Is. died before they were 2 years old.10
Sandwich Island notes by a Häolé, (G. W. Bates), N.Y. 1854, has an intelligent estimate of past & present causes of depopulation, pp. 341–351.11
Paradise in the Pacific, N.Y. 1873, Wm. R. Bliss, (an intelligent person) p. 57: “Marriages between the natives are not prolific, even when the married are in comfortable circumstances & of industrious habits, offspring are regarded as a calamity.”12
See also Answers to Questions by R. C. Wyllie, Minister of For. Relations, addressed to all the Haw. Missionaries: Honolulu, 1848, 8vo, an important work: I cannot get at it here; it may be in the Brit. Museum;13 AS. Dibble’s Hist., p. 128, on infanticide.14 Ans. to Questions, p. 47. says: “Habits (of illicit intercourse)15 were often commenced at the age of 2 or 3 years, & continued in such a manner as to induce genital impotency.” “These habits were deemed necessary to the preservation of friendship & good feeling toward one another,” says the “Haoli”, from whom the above quotation from “Questions” is taken, p. 344.16
Hawaiian depopulation: Causes summarized
I Past. abortion
Sodomy
Early & excessive copulation
Infanticide
Licentiousness, polyandry
Syphilis
Pestilence
War
Measles, Smallpox, influenza, & other foreign diseases. Leprosy has been developed during the past few years.
II Present
—Foreign diseases: influenza, measles.
—Changed habits of life: particularly dress, wh. seems fatal, Houses, cookery, occupations, are no longer adapted to the environment. The Hawaiians’ habits were more changed in 50 years than the Englishman’s in 1000;17 & the change was imposed, not spontaneous.
—
—Utter recklessness of health & life; irregularities of dress, diet, medical treatment, habits of sleeping & bathing, etc. The Hawaiian will not take the trouble to change his wet clothes: he will wear clothes one week, & go naked the next; he will rush into the river during the height of an eruptive fever.
—Licentiousness is still prevalent in many forms though less so than formerly.
—Abortion & foeticide I believe to be still practised secretly.
The Hawaiian has little power, physical or psychical, of resisting disease. His [lease] of life is small. At present he does not die so easily of foreign diseases as formerly, selection having taken place. In the case of syphilis & the exanthemata, the point of saturation seems to have been approached, as in the case of European constitutions.
The population of the group has been estimated at various periods as follows:
| Total Pop. | No. of foreigners, excluding half-castes, i.e. pure foreigners only. | Periodical decrease between the different official censuses, in the total population. | ||||
| 1779, | by Cook, | 400,000 | ||||
| 1823 | 142,050 | |||||
| 1832 | (off. census) | 130,313 | ||||
| 1836 | " | 108,579 | 21734 | 4 years | .16 p.c. | |
| 1850 | (off. census) | 84,165 | 1962 | 24414 | 14 " | .22 |
| 1853 | " | 73,138 | 2119 | 11027 | 3 | .13 |
| 1860 | " | 69,800 | 2716 | 3338 | 7 | .045 |
| 1866 | " | 62,959 | 4194 | 6841 | 6 | .098 |
| 1872 | " | 56,897 | 5366 | 6062 | 6 | .095 |
| Decrease from | 1832 to 1853 (21 years) 57,175, = 44 p.c. | |||||
| " | " | 1853 to 1872 (19 years) 16,241, = 22 p.c. | ||||
Cook’s estimate was a mere guess: & the estimate of 1823 was not much better. Even the official censuses are not very accurate.— The half-breeds are in majority Children of Chinese fathers & Hawaiian mothers (married): the next in number are the children of married American men & Hawaiian women: there are various other combinations, & illegitimate children.— The children of the American missionaries, now living on the Island, are some 200 in number. They intermarry freely, & are prolific.
Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9290,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on